


Encounter in Venice

by FidgetFidgets



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime), Meitantei Conan | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Humour, Love Triangles, Miscommunication, Murder, Mystery, Romance, Romantic Friendship, Sherlock Holmes References, Tragedy, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-13
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2017-11-25 09:43:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 46
Words: 235,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/637574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FidgetFidgets/pseuds/FidgetFidgets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After bringing down the Organization and taking the cure, Shinichi's life is at a crisis point. During a case, he encounters Ai, presumed dead, and meets a crew of eccentric people in Venice. Unravelling the mystery around them might help him to close the door to his own past. But solving a case is not easy when one is consumed with guilt and an unacknowledged love...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Ghost at Twilight](https://archiveofourown.org/works/627926) by [FidgetFidgets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FidgetFidgets/pseuds/FidgetFidgets). 
  * Inspired by [The Red String of Fate](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10862862) by [FidgetFidgets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FidgetFidgets/pseuds/FidgetFidgets). 



> Disclaimer:  
> This fanfic is based on Gosho Aoyama's Meitantei Konan and Magic Kaito and Naoko Takeuchi's Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (sans the magic).  
> The crime in this story is inspired by a novel by Donna Leon (Death at La Fenice). However, this is not a book parody, and you won't find any spoilers for the novel in this fic (or vice versa).  
> The lyrics of "Charade" belong to Johnny Mercer, the script of "Charade" belongs to Stanley Donen, and the lyrics of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera belong to Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe.
> 
> Thanks a lot to Astarael00 and SN 1987A, who have betaed the first chapters of this fic for me. (Rae betaed the first seven chapters (which have been merged into Chapter 1 and 2) whereas SN betaed Chapter 8-17 (now Chapter 3-10). I've learned a lot during the time they helped me, and without them, this fic would be full of typos, grammar mistakes, and long-winded sentences nobody can follow. From Chapter 18 on, the fic is unbetaed since my betas have retired.
> 
> Edit: I've merged the short chapters into longer chapters because I don't want to reupload too many chapters after editing the story for the last time.
> 
> Edit 2: I've begun to work on a possible prequel for this fic (and for "Ghost at Twilight"):  
> "The Red String of Fate": http://archiveofourown.org/works/10862862/chapters/24175650

 

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Prologue**

Everything must have happened before, he thinks, for everything seems curiously familiar to him. The cloudless sky, the red van which overtakes him, the children playing on the streets, the scent of Ran's perfume on the scarf around his neck, detective Takagi, who is waving at him... Everything seems vaguely familiar, even his amazement at the small figure standing in front of the gate, waiting for him.

"It must be really urgent," he says, jumping from his skateboard. "I can't remember that you've ever been waiting for me _in front of_ the door!"

"I see you're in a splendid mood," she observes, smiling. But he can see in her eyes that something is not right.

"But you aren't," he remarks, automatically scanning her up and down to search for clues. "So what happened?"

Obviously, she has not slept well, as she looks tired and overwrought and her eyes are surrounded by dark rings. The fresh scent about her tells him that she has just had a shower. She is wearing the midnight-blue pullover he believes to be her favourite, the new pair of blue jeans Ayumi-chan's mother gave her on her tenth birthday, and the new red coat she bought last year because her favourite red-riding-hood coat had become too small for her.

It can't be a coincidence that she has taken a shower at such a time, has put on her favourite clothes, and has even polished her shoes, he thinks. Why has she been particularly fastidious about the choice of clothes tonight? If he didn't know her better, he would say she was going on a date. However, there would be no reason why she would call him and tell him to come to her "immediately" if she really intended to go on a date, not to mention that he couldn't think of anyone Haibara Ai would go out with. She was, at least physically, only ten years old. And since she was mentally twenty, he couldn't imagine that she would go out with any of the ten-year-old kids who were in love with her.

The Professor—they have grown accustomed to referring to good old Agasa-hakase as "the Professor"—has gone to a scientific meeting and won't come back before tomorrow night, she informs him. That means they will have enough time to prepare for their scheme. She has also called Hattori, who is already on the way to Tokyo...

"Mr Black has called you," he says, stating the obvious. Entering the house, he wonders why everything seems wrong to him. For example, the couch in the corner of the room is supposed to be beige, not blue.

She has just shut the door behind him and is now coming towards him. And, with an impersonal sense of foreboding—impersonal in the sense that it seems to belong to another person and not to him—he realizes that he knows exactly what she is going to say.

"Kudo," she begins. "What are you going to do after taking the cure?"

It's only a dream, Shinichi realizes. He is dreaming about something that happened in the past. But he cannot remember what happened and why there is a lump in his throat, which prevents him from speaking. He is suddenly aware of the cold air coming through the window and the drizzle of rain outside the hotel while other past—or future—happenings (considering that the setting of his dream is Beika, three years ago) are flitting past him. There are the moist streets of Paris where they met Jean, the French agent of the FBI, the brilliant sky of Osaka, where they made the final preparations for their scheme, and, at last, the small isle where they found the headquarters of the Black Organization...

"I promise I'll come back in time," he can hear himself saying. And while the sun goes down, while the scenery around them keeps changing and becomes a blur as he slowly regains consciousness, she is still standing there in front of him, fixing him with her inquiring eyes, until he finally opens his eyes and her image, too, disappears with Hattori Heiji's into the impenetrable darkness of the night...

x.


	2. Part One: The tendency...

 

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**The tendency...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday evening, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

The tendency towards exaggeration seems to be one of the less endearing (but nevertheless typical) characteristics of humankind, Shinichi reflects, absently smiling at the words **"Gran Teatro La Fenice"** —golden letters on a pale-blue background—on the title page of the brochure in Ran's hands. The name refers to the phoenix, a magic bird which is born from fire and rising from its ashes. They have made an effort to show the proud, reddish-golden bird spreading its wings to soar (in Ran's opinion) or just to exhibit its magnificence (in Shinichi's opinion).

"It looks like a golden swan!" Ran exclaims.

It looks like an orange goose with a very long neck, Shinichi thinks.

He has read on the website of the Teatro that they called the restoration project of the embellishments in the Apollinee Rooms "an act of love towards the fragments which survived". An act of love! Why is it so easy to love places, buildings, and other lifeless things more than people? Why do we love lifeless things at all?

"On 29th January 1996 a malicious fire destroyed the theatre," Ran reads aloud. "But then the name of the theatre is somewhat... prophetic, don't you think? It was burned down and then rebuilt again and reopened again in..." She flips impatiently through the small brochure. "I can't find it."

"It reopened in November 2004 with _La Traviata_ , the Verdi opera that premiered in La Fenice."

"How come you know about it?"

"I've read the brochure, too," Shinichi smirks.

"Yes, yes, everyone knows that you're the Sherlock Holmes of the twenty-first century!" She playfully glares at him. "Back to our topic. I think that the name of the theatre is quite prophetic, don't you think?"

"Kind of… but not really, considering the first three pages of the brochure you've just skipped. La Fenice got its name because of another fire: The most important theatre in Venice was burned to the ground at the end of the eighteenth century. The Venetians, who couldn't decide whether to rebuild it or not, built another house and, alluding to the fire, called it La Fenice. It burned down, was reopened again after a year and then burned down again in 1996. If the name was really prophetic as you said, it would certainly burn down again some day."

"But I still think that it's nice that they rebuilt it. You see, they loved it enough to rebuild it instead of replacing it with another theatre... Don't you think the same?"

"That it's nice that they rebuilt it?" Shinichi asks, avoiding her questioning gaze. "Of course I do. But they might just as well have replaced it with a new theatre, don't you think? It would have been the same."

"No, of course it wouldn't have been the same," she claims, flushing with anger. "A new theatre can never be the same as the old one. It's not as simple as that. There are... memories. You can't erase the memories so easily..."

No, you cannot erase them from your mind, he agrees. At least he can't erase them. However, he can keep them in a file he is never going to open again...

x.

Later, when they have taken their seats in the concert hall, it dawns on Shinichi that Ran and he don't speak the same language anymore. Words which sound positive in her ears sound negative in his and vice versa. When she spoke of "memories", she meant the memories of their childhood, which had made them fall in love with each other, and not the memories he had been thinking of.

The lights in the hall begin to dim; and Shinichi grabs the chance to cast another glance at her face without her noticing. Once again, just like the day before yesterday when they met at Narita International Airport to fly to Venice together, he is struck by the fact that, compared to the teenage Ran-nee-chan, who took care of Conan-kun a few years ago, her appearance hasn't changed much. Her hair she cut three years ago has grown long again, touching her shoulders. Her face has become slightly sharper and more mature than it was three years ago. But apart from that, her features and expressions have not changed at all. Ran has stayed the same—in contrast to him.

When the curtains open, the thundering applause which follows Hino Rei's and Tenoh Haruka's appearance onstage interrupts Shinichi's train of thought. Even though he has seen Tenoh's face on posters, CD and DVD covers, and watched one of his concerts on TV before, Shinichi didn't expect that Tenoh would make such an impression on him the first time he sees him in the flesh. A malicious critic wrote in the newspaper Shinichi read on the plane that Tenoh's excellent piano skills are certainly not the reason for his growing fame: "being one of the best-looking pianists and composers of our time, Tenoh Haruka would be popular even if he couldn't play the piano at all." Another critic wrote that, as a pianist, Tenoh might have been impressive a few years ago but has lost his virtuosity and his unique expressiveness recently.

However, it doesn't take Tenoh more than a few chords to convince Shinichi that—virtuosity or no virtuosity—he is definitely a promising talent and will become one of the best pianists the world has ever heard. Even though Tenoh's touch seems to Shinichi less exquisite than his fans claim, there is still something unusual and magnetic about his playing, something that even Shinichi, who didn't voluntarily attend this opera, is unable to resist.

In the beginning, flying to Venice and spending a few days alone with Ran didn't seem like a particularly good idea to Shinichi. First, he knew exactly that it was dangerous to spend so much time with Ran—to holiday with her in Venice and to stay with her in a huge suite as if they were a married couple. Second, he didn't care much about the concert, about Tenoh Haruka or Hino Rei, as music in general and this type of music in particular aren't of any interest to him. Moreover, he ought to be in Tokyo solving cases instead of wasting his time watching Tenoh's _An Opera for One Singer and Piano_.

On her twenty-third birthday, Ran received two tickets for the world premiere of Tenoh's new opera and—much to Shinichi's surprise—insisted that he be her companion. The tickets were a present from her mother, she told him on the phone; and he had to go to Venice with her because—although he was still her best friend—he and she hadn't spent their free time together in months. Every time she returned to Tokyo to visit her parents, he was either busy running through some dubious districts of the city to collect information for a new case or abroad visiting his parents in New York. Over two years had passed since their last trip together; and six months had passed since the last time they met. Flying to Venice and attending Tenoh Haruka and Hino Rei's concert would be a nice change from the daily phone calls, during which they only exchanged a few sentences about the weather, their friends and acquaintances, and their jobs…

Going with her to the concert was the greatest birthday present he could give her, she concluded.

Well, he didn't have a choice, did he? It only surprises him that he is actually enjoying himself instead of getting bored and counting the hours he is losing in Venice while he should be working on the new case for the ever-drunk Sleeping Kogoro.

However, when he begins to focus on the lyrics, Shinichi realizes that Hino Rei is singing about lost loves, lost memories, and grave errors in someone's past, at least according to the few words he can make out. But those few words are enough to remind him of his own grave errors and to break the spell.

The first act of Tenoh's _An Opera for One Singer and Piano_ ends with a standing ovation. Shinichi, however, has begun to feel uneasy since the music stopped. Ordering drinks for Ran and himself, he excuses himself to go to the men's room and tells her that—provided the queue is not too long—he will come back before the first break ends.

With fast, regular steps, he walks in the direction of the men's room and, after making sure that she is not following him, quickly leaves the opera.

x.

* * *

 

**"Ai-kun?"**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday evening, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

"Ai-kun?"

"Yes, it's me. Sorry that I'm so late tonight—or so early, depending on how you want to look at it..."

"It doesn't matter. I haven't gone to bed yet. I always spend the whole night in front of the PC to surf the net, you know."

"I expected that... although I'm really late tonight. I just met an old friend on the way and—"

"An old friend? Who—"

"She's not really a friend, just an acquaintance. But how are you, Professor?"

"I'm fine. Very fine, actually. It seems that I'll be up and about in a few weeks."

"I'm glad to hear that. But you shouldn't rush. Just wait until you're strong enough to stand up."

She doesn't need to worry about him. How is she doing?

She is fine, she says, apart from the stress at work, the continuous flying back and forth. Last week, she was in Venice and flew directly afterwards to London to meet "someone" who is a real specialist in antique vases.

Why antique vases all of the sudden, he asks. She has never been interested in old vases.

But she has been interested in antique vases for a while now, she tries to explain to him. She has always been interested in the old, historic things; and antique vases belong to that category, too.

Antique vases, the Ming Dynasty, China, the Professor thinks. China is not as far away from Japan as France. The flight won't be so long. Maybe he can visit her in a few weeks.

But now she explains to him that she is going to move to Venice because she likes everything "here" so much (the old buildings, museums, no cars, the rain and all the water here)... Paris was beautiful but got boring with time. By the way, she is just calling him from Venice.

Venice, La Fenice, Tenoh Haruka, Shinichi-kun and Ran-kun...

"I almost forgot to tell you, Shinichi-kun and Ran-kun are in Venice at the moment. Would you like to meet them? They're going to stay in Venice for about a week."

"I already met Kudo at the entrance of La Fenice. He told me they're watching an opera by Tenoh Haruka there, _An Opera for One Singer and Piano_. What a strange title."

"You've already met Shinichi-kun? But shouldn't he be sitting in La Fenice at the moment?"

"He only wanted to catch a breath of fresh air during the first break. He has probably returned to his seat by now."

"Ah, that's why… Say, Ai-kun, have you noticed that something is wrong with him?"

"With Kudo? What do you mean with 'something is wrong with him?' To me, he doesn't seem different from usual; he has pestered me with his boring cases, just as always."

It's strange that she of all people hasn't noticed it although she has always had such a good nose for the small incongruities. She used to pick up such kind of thing straightaway. But perhaps Shinichi-kun behaves differently towards her…?

"I think he misses you very much, Ai-kun."

"But it absolutely doesn't seem so to me, Professor... How did you get that idea?"

Shinichi-kun has changed very much since she went away, the Professor tells her. "He has become so quiet and taciturn. Sometimes I almost wonder if—"

"Well, I'm certainly not the reason for his melancholy. I'm sorry to interrupt you so suddenly, Professor, but I've just remembered that I must go now. I'm late already. I'll explain everything to you the next time I call you. I think I'll call you in a week at the latest."

"All right, Ai-kun... But are you really fine? You don't sound very happy either—"

"Come on, I'd be absolutely exuberant if I didn't have a cold. But I must really stop now. I'll call you again next week. Bye."

"Bye," sighs Professor Agasa into the receiver and rolls his wheelchair into the kitchen to take his medicine, which he ought to have taken two hours ago. Why do the simplest things seem so complicated when Ai-kun is not around, he wonders. Maybe he should tell her how much he misses her. Maybe she would finally get herself a fixed line network or at least buy a mobile phone so that he can call her and listen to her voice every day.

x.

In Venice, Kudo Shinichi is leaving the phone box, putting his voice changing bowtie back into his pocket. The Professor sounds now like the lonely old man he is, Shinichi thinks on the way back to La Fenice. However, he knows very well that he can't do anything about it. The Detective Boys, Ran, and Shinichi himself are doing their best to cheer him up. But the fact remains that the Professor needs Ai; and none of them can ever replace her no matter how much they try.

A young woman in her mid twenties is hurrying towards the entrance of La Fenice and brushes slightly against his shoulder when she passes him. The familiar cut of her hair would have sent a chill down his spine if it was not an ash-blonde colour devoid of any reddish glimmer. When she turns to throw a distracted look at him, he automatically classifies her as one of those pretty, snobbish, innocent-looking girls who don't know what the word "scruple" means. He can remember there was a girl during his Conan-phase who attempted to kill one of her best friends with her own nails. But, since he has learned to forget the things which would only have "elbowed out the useful ones," as Sherlock Holmes puts it, he has forgotten her name.

x.

* * *

 

**A glance at his watch...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday evening, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

A glance at his watch tells Shinichi that the second act will begin in one minute. The foyer is already completely deserted apart from a few ushers, himself, and the young woman who overtook him on the way back to La Fenice. Obviously, the audience has already been asked to return to their seats.

Usually, an opera—or the second act of an opera, in this case—seldom begins punctually anywhere, much less in Italy. But the Italians, whose public conveyances are famous for being late, are also famous for the fact that they would remember from time to time that the word "punctuality" exists, and would suddenly keep strictly to their schedule.

In front of him, the blonde stranger has begun to chat with the usher at the left entrance of the concert hall: "Surprised to see me?" "Of course I am. What are _you_ doing here?" "I've heard that 'he' would be here. But haven't you spotted him yet?" "I'm sure that 'he' hasn't walked past me, otherwise I'd remember it. Ask Luigi..."

About four—or five?—years ago, after deciding that they needed a language in which they could communicate with each other without having to fear that the children, who had got into the disturbing habit of eavesdropping on them, could grasp the meaning of the things they said, Ai and he bought an Italian course and met up regularly in Agasa's cellar to study together. And when they were almost done with it—only "almost" because they lacked the required patience for these wearisome systematic courses—she got the brilliant idea of translating the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories from English into Italian.

Being a die-hard Holmes-fan, Shinichi thought that it was a great idea and volunteered to assist her. Within a few weeks, they developed into two mystery-loving couch potatoes and shut themselves up in Agasa's cellar until both of them realized that they had better give it up, for it was a time-consuming diversion they couldn't afford.

As expected, they never managed to read all the Holmes stories as they had originally planned. Instead, they began to banter with each other in Italian until both of them were fluent. Now that he is thinking about it, it appears to him that things never turned out as planned when he was with her. Even the catastrophe three years ago seemed the logical consequence of their inability not to get in each other's way.

"But Luigi has got no brains," the blonde stranger dramatically sighs, ignoring his attempt to pass her without having to shove her aside. Judging from her hair colour and her features, he would say that she is Russian, although her almond-shaped eyes indicate the existence of some oriental ancestors.

Despite her pretty, innocent face, which is a startling contrast to the ridiculously arrogant, artificial gestures she makes with her arms, she is of no real interest to him. Another stranger has appeared at the door, diverting his attention from her.

It is a dark, polished-looking young man balancing a glass of champagne between his thumb and index finger (while his little finger is, to Shinichi's amusement, aristocratically spread out). To avoid bumping into the usher who, just like her friend, is gesticulating wildly with her arms—"You know Luigi, he falls in love with every pretty woman he can't get; and Seiya's secretary is completely out of Luigi's reach, so—"—he makes a step in Shinichi's direction and, colliding with the blonde woman who has just stepped back, spills the champagne.

"I'm very sorry," he says to the blonde woman. "Are you all right?" Obviously, he belongs to the dying species of gentlemen who apologize to a woman despite thinking that they are in the right.

She is perfectly all right, she tells him (both of them know that he didn't spill anything on her at all) and continues to chat with her friend, whereupon he turns to Shinichi and repeats his question, adding a crestfallen: "Sorry for spilling my champagne on you."

He doesn't mind the few champagne stains on his trousers, Shinichi replies. However, he must admit that it surprises him to see someone leaving the hall now that the second act is about to begin.

They always let the audience wait for at least five minutes, the stranger says. Since they removed the gong in La Fenice, they have got into the habit of calling the audience in about five minutes before the scheduled time and then waiting for another five to ten minutes to begin the new act because they want to give the audience enough time to prepare themselves for the music.

That makes sense. But why did they remove the gong, Shinichi wonders. As time is running short, he decides to end the conversation and content himself with a simple: "Ah, that's why" before saying goodbye to the champagne-balancing stranger and returning to his seat.

x.

Relieved that he has come in time for the second act (so he didn't stumble across any corpses this time?), Ran accepts Shinichi's tale about over-crowded toilets and a long queue without asking for any details. Probably she even believes that he has told her the truth, for he has learned to lie very fluently, without batting an eyelid. During all those years pretending to be Conan and then pretending to be Ai, Shinichi has learned to appreciate the soothing, alleviating effect of white lies and uses them now without scruple. Why should he feel guilty for lying when, compared to his closely-guarded secret, every lie is white?

"Eternity," sings Hino in fortissimo, "eteeeeeerniiiiity..."

She suddenly stops and begins to sing very quietly the same word over and over again while the piano accompanies her with fast broken chords. But this time, Tenoh seems to have lost control over his—no, _her!_ —fingers, for the arpeggios are loud and insensitive, clumsily drowning out the voice of the singer. To make matters worse, Tenoh doesn't even seem to notice it.

What a pity that the great Tenoh Haruka is either almost deaf or a pathetic show-off, a self-centred, egoistical wannabe-musician, Shinichi thinks. However, he must admit that she is a skilled cross-dresser. He needed almost two acts to figure out that she is a woman; and even now he can't tell how he could notice it. She is wearing the classical black tailcoat male musicians usually wear during their concerts, a pair of black trousers, a white shirt with a high collar, and a small violet scarf. Certainly she has bound her breasts as women who disguise themselves as men often do, as Shinichi cannot detect any revealing female shapes. For a woman, she is strikingly tall; and her features are so androgynous that it is impossible to guess her real gender just by looking at her face.

Even though Tenoh Haruka's little masquerade intrigues Shinichi, her music has abruptly ceased to be of any interest to him. His post-antidote headaches have come back, reminding him that, if he doesn't do anything about them before the opera ends, he will spend the rest of the night wishing he had never been born.

A familiar colour catches his eye when he shifts his position, striking a chill into his heart. Four rows in front of him, a young woman is sitting, almost completely obscured by a ponderous couple behind her, which is certainly the reason why he hasn't spotted her until now. This time, there is no ash-blonde colour or ridiculously artificial gestures to remind him that ghosts do not exist. The familiar shape of her head, her neck and her shoulders, the distinctive colour of her hair, her haircut, and even her collected, calm pose remind him of Ai's.

When the audience rises to give the two musicians on the stage another standing ovation, he loses sight of her due to the obese couple blocking his view. But owing to the vibrant colour of her hair, Ai's double is not hard to find. On the way to the door she turns and looks about herself, showing him her face, which resembles Miyano Shiho's perfectly. Nevertheless, despite her staggering similarity to Haibara Ai, there are a few details which dash Shinichi's hopes the moment he sees her face.

It is easy to change your appearance, but not your way of moving. That's why it's so easy to recognize someone you know from afar.

He has tried to banish the memories of her from his mind. But he can still remember her faint smile, her ironic smirk, and her composed facade—camouflage for her insecurity. This woman, however, carries herself with natural ease, as if she is really at peace with herself.

And Haibara Ai would never, ever, voluntarily wear black!

x.

* * *

 

**All of the tables are already occupied...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday evening, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

All of the tables are already occupied when Shinichi and Ran leave the concert hall. After buying themselves two glasses of champagne at the bar, they decide to spend the rest of the second break strolling about La Fenice, beholding the photographs on the walls. In contrast to Ran, who obviously enjoys their little excursion, Shinichi is inwardly cursing himself for losing sight of Ai's double after leaving the hall. He had only taken his eyes from her for a few seconds to turn to Ran and answer her question about whether he had understood the lyrics or not. After telling Ran that he hadn't understood much except for the "eternity", he looked up and "Haibara Ai" was gone.

Resisting the impulse to comb the opera house for her, Shinichi forces himself to concentrate on the framed monochrome photos of various musicians, singers, conductors, and dancers, and to pay attention to Ran's little comments and enthusiastic exclamations.

"Look, Shinichi! Aino Minako is only one year older than me and has already performed in over sixty plays." Ran points at the picture of a pretty woman in a long low-cut evening dress, whose bright smile reminds Shinichi of his mother's. Just like Kudo Yukiko, Aino Minako likes to be photographed.

"Impressive... But I'm sure you've left more lasting impressions on others than Aino: you had beaten far more than sixty opponents before you went to Osaka, not to mention the random criminals you had almost taken out."

She laughs.

"I'm in a good mood and will take it as a compliment. I can't beat you here in front of so many people, after all."

Shinichi lets his eyes roam about the crowded corridor while Ran continues reading the article on Aino Minako. The counterfeit Haibara Ai must be either in the foyer or at the bar at this moment unless she has left the opera house to catch a breath of fresh air, which is improbable in this weather. He doesn't try to search for her, as he knows he will see her again when the third act starts. Running after her would mean either leaving Ran alone again or arousing her suspicion. Even Ran, who is one of the most trusting people he knows, would immediately become suspicious if she met a woman looking exactly like Haibara Ai, who is supposed to be thirteen years old and who had allegedly gone to New York to live with her "distant aunt and uncle" and her "distant cousin Edogawa Conan."

Furthermore, it wouldn't be the first time that he has made a fool of himself in front of a stranger by calling her Ai, Shinichi muses. Despite his powers of observation, he had mistaken so many women for Ai in the first months after her disappearance that he had begun to question his eyesight. Sometimes those women had only dressed themselves as he had expected Ai to dress herself if she had returned to her original size—and more often Shinichi had to admit that they didn't look like Ai at all after he had approached them.

"What a beautiful picture!" Ran exclaims, stopping in front of a photograph of Tenoh Haruka, taken during a rehearsal. To Shinichi's surprise, the young man who spilled his champagne on him before the second act is standing at the piano next to Tenoh, apparently discussing the scores with her. According to the caption underneath the photo, his name is "Mamoru Chiba"—"Chiba Mamoru" in Japanese—a friend of Tenoh's. He looks a few years older than her in the photo, Shinichi thinks, like a man in his thirties. He seemed younger to Shinichi when they met at the door.

"But Tenoh-sama looks a bit too pretty in this picture. He looks almost like a woman, don't you think so?"

Shinichi smiles to himself, amused. Ran often has these flashes of brilliance, which she always dismisses. If she weren't Suzuki Sonoko's best friend, he would tell her that she has just discovered the closely-guarded secret of Tenoh Haruka. However, the very thought of Suzuki Sonoko was sufficient to convince him that—as Tenoh might have a good reason to hide her real sex from the public—he should keep his discovery for himself instead of dumping the responsibility on Ran and force her to withhold such vital information from her friend.

"Yes, he looks a bit too pretty for a man," he says and, in order to draw her attention away from Tenoh and the question of Tenoh's gender, proceeds to the next picture. "But perhaps it's just the photographer. This one looks pretty effeminate, too."

"Seiya Kou" is the name of the young man whose profile they are beholding, according to the short article next to the photograph. Remembering that he had heard the name "Seiya" from the gossiping usher at the entrance to the concert hall, Shinichi surmises that this man could be the "he" whom the Russian woman—the one with Ai's haircut—was talking about. He is a rather soft-looking young man with a very pretty face evocative of boy groups and screaming adolescent girls. His long, curly black ponytail, the short fringe on his forehead, and the moon-shaped earrings only add insult to injury. However, there is no doubt that Seiya is a man, for he is wearing a thin white silk shirt which would undoubtedly betray revealing shapes if there were any. There is nothing as convincing as the powers of suggestion, Shinichi thinks. Once Ran's mind has made a connection between this photo and Tenoh's photo, the idea that Tenoh might be a woman will never again cross her mind.

"Oh, it's really the photographer. Seiya-sama doesn't look like this," Ran laughs.

Shinichi carefully avoids asking her why she knows what Seiya Kou looks like. The article says that Seiya Kou was once the lead singer, part-time drummer, and guitarist of Three Lights, a famous band whose name Shinichi had heard Suzuki Sonoko mention at school every day before he was shrunk. Shinichi has never liked bands like Three Lights, whose performances are always sold out and whose names make school girls squeal, which is why he never went to a concert of theirs. Judging from what he has heard on the radio, Three Lights was just a good band among many other good bands, with a lead singer whose voice was definitely more pleasant than his smug face and his cool expression. Most probably, Ran has seen him on TV during a sleep-over at Sonoko's.

"I saw him once on TV when I visited Sonoko," Ran says.

"Ah, that's why," Shinichi listlessly remarks and pulls her away from the photos, back to the bar to return the champagne glasses. He doesn't particularly enjoy Ran's Sonoko-related talks, as he can sense that they will unavoidably lead to the one question he has dreaded since he agreed to go to Venice with her.

"Sonoko was extremely unhappy when Three Lights split up," Ran continues. "But then Seiya-sama began to sing again, this time musicals. Sonoko says we must watch _The Phantom of the Opera_ on Sunday if we have time. She told me she would try to get tickets... Maybe she can convince Kyogoku-san to come, too. What do you think? Perhaps we can go out and have dinner together afterwards. And we can go to the cinema together on Monday. I haven't gone to the cinema in ages..."

That's exactly what he has feared. After seeing Ran's huge suitcase, he knew that Ran planned to stay in Venice for longer than just "three or four days" (as she had told him). He even considers it a good idea, as both of them need a break from work. However, Shinichi has forebodings about meeting Sonoko again, whose set dislike for him greatly intensified after Valentine's Day three years ago. In her view, which she repeatedly makes clear every time they meet, he had played with Ran's feelings for seven years by pretending to be in love with her and then dumped her on the first Valentine's Day after his return. To make matters worse, Sonoko has set herself the formidable task of convincing Ran that it is humiliating to keep in touch with him despite everything he has done to her. Sonoko has been living in Venice for about three months (since she decided to study art history) and is now the proud owner of an old villa, to which she has invited Ran many times. For this reason—and regardless of knowing Ran's frank personality—Shinichi has a nagging suspicion that Ran has planned to take him to Sonoko's villa since the beginning (since she asked him to watch Tenoh's opera with her). It wouldn't be the first time that she has tried to reconcile her quarrelling friends—and this Venice trip must seem to her like a fabulous chance she absolutely cannot miss.

"Well, what do you think about it, Shinichi? I won't force you to stay here until next week if you don't want to. I know you have a lot of work to do in Tokyo." She gives him a bright, disarming smile.

"Oh, I really don't have much to do in Tokyo," he says, resigned. "Your father can do without me for a while."

x.

They return to the hall immediately after giving back their glasses because Ran is afraid of being late for the third act. Her fear proves totally groundless, for fifteen minutes have already elapsed since the scheduled beginning of the third act without any of the musicians showing up onstage. The audience doesn't seem bothered by the delay, as a few people are still standing in front of the open entrances of the hall, chatting casually while the rest content themselves with reading their brochures, playing games on their mobile phones, or discussing the first two acts of the opera with their neighbours. Tenoh Haruka has become rather unreliable recently, Shinichi learns from the elegant elderly English gentleman sitting directly behind him. As "Mr Haruka Tenoh" has got into the habit of letting "his" audience wait for fifteen minutes to half an hour before the last part of his concerts, his long-suffering fans, who are accustomed to accepting all his quirks and whims, are prepared for this kind of delay and endure it with good humour.

"Usually, fans of classical music are not so forgiving," the man adds. "But Mr Haruka Tenoh belongs to the few musicians who can take the liberty of doing whatever they like without having to fear punishment from anyone."

"I suppose that was the reason why they removed the gong," Shinichi remarks with a wry smile.

"What gong?" Ran asks.

"I heard there was a gong which announces the beginning of a new act," he tells her. "Perhaps they thought that such a gong would only make the audience nervous because it would remind them of the time the new act is supposed to start... Waiting is so much more painful when you know that it isn't necessary. Anyway, I'm already nervous enough without the gong."

His nervousness, however, has less to do with the third act of the opera than with the empty seat four rows in front of him. Although the ushers are closing the doors to the concert hall, the woman looking so much like Ai still has not returned.

"Did I tell you that Kazuha-chan has decided to join the police force?" Ran suddenly asks without warning.

Shinichi stiffens. "No, you didn't."

"She thinks it will give her life a new meaning. She has been extremely depressed and aimless since Hattori... you know..."

"I know."

"Do you think it's a good idea?"

"Of course it's a good idea. Over three years have passed... almost four. She is too young to bury herself in her apartment for the rest of her life. It's time for her to move on."

It is always the same whenever they meet. She would try to touch the wound again as if she still hopes that, some day, he will open up and give her a detailed, truthful account of the happenings of that fateful night three years ago. Even though she cannot know that he has lied to her (that he has lied to everybody) about the explosion three years ago, her amazing intuition must have told her that he has more information about Hattori's death than he gave away. And, persistent as she has always been, she just cannot—or doesn't want to—accept that he will not share his secret with her.

"It's not so easy to forget someone you've loved for your whole life," she says with a faraway look. But this time he does not answer. Whenever she alludes to the problem of their failed relationship, an odd twinge of regret would come over him—"odd" because it doesn't remind him of that Valentine's Day when he idiotically pretended to mistake her chocolate heart for a chocolate peach once again but of a song he has heard in an old movie, in _Charade_...

As always, he just returns to his shell and waits until the feeling is gone.

He has almost forgotten the reason why they are sitting in La Fenice when the lights suddenly dim and the curtains open. Hino Rei—with a face as pale as snow and suspiciously red eyes—is followed by two men: a middle-aged Italian, who is staring in a state of shock into the crowd, and the majestic-looking young man who had spilled his champagne on Shinichi before the beginning of the second act: Chiba Mamoru.

"I'm very sorry for the delay," the Italian says. His hands holding the microphone are shaking, and Shinichi notices that he is sweating and can't keep his facial expression neutral for two seconds. "Miss... Mister Haruka Tenoh is not feeling well. Mister Mamoru Chiba, who is the greatest amateur musician I know, is going to replace h... him and accompany Miss Rei Hino during the last act of the opera! I hope you will enjoy it despite Mister Tenoh's absence. By the way," his voice cracks, "is there a doctor among us who can help?"

Without thinking, Shinichi raises his hand and leaves his seat.

Whispering to Ran—who is throwing a pained look at him—that he will return as soon as possible, Shinichi follows the Italian to the dressing rooms while Chiba Mamoru, who has adjusted the height of the piano stool in the meantime, begins the third part of the opera with a few grave chords, which could as well have belonged to a funeral march.

It might have been irresponsible to claim to be a doctor in this situation, Shinichi admits. At the same time, he doesn't regret what he has done, for there is this sixth sense of his, which has never betrayed him when it comes to crime. And—although he feels genuinely sorry for her and hopes that his fears will be proven wrong—Shinichi doubts that Tenoh Haruka will ever appear in front of her audience again.

x.


	3. Part One: Commissario Lele Carrara...

 

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Commissario Lele Carrara...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

Commissario Lele Carrara, who arrived at the scene of the crime a few minutes ago, is a middle-aged, energetic-looking man, whose beautiful brown eyes stand in marked contrast to the rather plain features of his swarthy face. After greeting Shinichi and introducing himself, he immediately asked for a proof of Shinichi's identity and is now studying Shinichi's passport with mistrustful fastidiousness. Apparently, Shinichi's story of the holidaying detective who pretended to be a doctor simply because he "sensed that Haruka Tenoh might have been murdered" does not seem convincing to him. And once again the thought occurs to Shinichi that the truth is less believable and harder to explain than a white lie would have been.

"And what, did you say, do you do?" Carrara asks in Italian, reading Shinichi's particulars and comparing Shinichi's present face to the contentedly smiling face on the photo.

"I'm a private detective... I'm working as Kogoro Mori's assistant."

"Kogoro Who?"

"Kogoro Mori, the Sleeping Kogoro."

"What a curious title..." Carrara chuckles, returning the passport to Shinichi. "So he is quite famous, isn't he? Am I supposed to know him? I must admit I've never heard of The Sleepy Kogoro before."

As he stressed the words "The Sleepy Kogoro" while his lips curved into a tiny grin, Shinichi deduces that Carrara has just classified him under the pathetic group of ambitious dreamers who have read too much detective fiction. In Carrara's eyes, he is a delusional Watson-wannabe, who is working for an even more delusional sleepy Sherlock.

Nonetheless there is a grain of truth in Carrara's assumption when it comes to the latter, as Mori Kogoro has never realized that it was actually Edogawa Conan who solved his cases during his peek as a detective. After Edogawa's departure, Kudo Shinichi returned and, to everyone's surprise, asked The Sleeping Kogoro for "practical training" at his agency. Ever since that time, Mori has spent his days comfortably shuttling between the agency and various bars in and outside Tokyo while Shinichi—under the pretense of broadening his hands-on experience in the art of deduction—has been working at the scene of the crime, calling Mori regularly only to report on the cases and to ask for help whenever he encounters any bureaucratic or organizational problems. Mori always feels flattered to appear useful by doing some minor research on the phone or at the computer without getting into the danger of overworking himself.

Wondering whether Lele Carrara's mistrust belongs to the bureaucratic problems whose solution require Mori's influential acquaintances (all of them ex-clients who would love to do the Sleeping Kogoro a small favour), Shinichi stays near the door and lets his gaze roam the room, regretting that he has not checked anything but Tenoh's pulse and a few books on the shelf before the police arrived. About thirty minutes ago, when Luigi Gentile, the artistic director, led him to Tenoh's dressing room and showed him the body on the floor, the first thing Shinichi did was telling Gentile to call the police, which was—as he must admit now—a rather careless and monumentally stupid thing to do.

First, any serious investigator would naturally become suspicious of him after hearing Gentile's witness account in view of the peaceful, not-dead-at-all-looking face of Tenoh's corpse. Second, Shinichi has to admit that his overzealous reaction to the room was overly emotional and amateurish. After jumping to the rather hasty conclusion that she was dead, he made the second mistake by telling Gentile to call the police before making sure that Tenoh had really stopped breathing. And his only excuse for this most incredible stupidity is his thumping headache, which has, once again, prevented him from thinking rationally.

However, from an intellectual and non-bureaucratic point of view, he was right to assume that she was dead after seeing her deathly pale face, the china cup on the floor, the chair lying next to it, and the long stain on the carpet where the contents of the cup were spilled. The fact that there was an odd expression evocative of an enigmatic smile on her face didn't prevent him from observing that there was an almost invisible loose thread at the end of her silk scarf, which was not moving at all despite hanging literally under her nose. After seeing those things, telling Gentile to call the police was an almost instinctive reaction. He did it in the way he would have told Ran to call the police if she had been present.

Touching Tenoh's skin to feel her pulse while Gentile was fidgeting for his mobile phone, Shinichi only proved to himself that his first assumption had been right. She must have died not long ago—he remembers thinking—as her body was still warm and her hair and clothes were still damp with sweat. A real problem, however, was to determine the cause of her death.

At first glance, it had seemed to Shinichi like an easy case, as it was clear that Tenoh must have been poisoned (or had poisoned herself) with the contents of the little china cup, which was still in one piece after falling on the thick ochre carpet covering almost the whole room. That carpet, too, was probably the reason why nobody had heard Tenoh's fall, and Shinichi made sure that neither he nor Gentile stepped on it when they entered the room. Except for the upended chair on the floor, there was no sign of a struggle, which was why Shinichi concluded that Tenoh must have pulled the chair down with her when she fell. Without special devices, he couldn't detect any sign of blood or destruction in the room. If she had been poisoned, it was not done forcefully but gently, probably by a person she trusted.

For all that, there was neither any foam nor any smell indicating that a deadly poison had been used. The stain on the carpet might as well have been caused by water. No sleeping pills—no matter how many she had swallowed—would have been able to kill Tenoh within such a short time. And even though Shinichi does not flatter himself to know all about modern poisons, he still knows enough about poisons to be sure that Tenoh had not died of strychnine or any of the other conventional poisons available to normal people. None of the many poisoned corpses he has seen in his life has ever had a smile plastered on its face either. Perhaps the smile was only a visual illusion, Shinichi thinks, and takes a small step into the room to catch another glimpse of Tenoh's corpse, which is being photographed by the technician's.

"I'm sorry, but I must ask you to stay outside while we are working," Carrara says, indicating the technicians. "Please wait for me in the corridor. I might need to ask you a few questions after we're done here."

x.

Standing in front of the dressing room, watching Carrara giving instructions to the sergeants while Tenoh's corpse is being made ready to be removed, Shinichi tries to make the most of his time by peering over the heads of the sergeants at the huge oil painting, which occupies the rear half of the left wall of the dressing room.

It shows Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in a Victorian room, the former standing behind a mahogany table full of test tubes, magnifying glasses, and microscopes, obviously completely absorbed in his work, while the latter is sitting in an armchair, watching his companion. Sherlock Holmes' similarity to Tenoh is staggering despite being dark, haggard, and rather tall in stature while Tenoh had blonde hair and, being a woman disguised as a man, looked slightly more delicate. Dr. Watson, on the other hand, reminds Shinichi of a young version of the original Dr. Watson in Sidney Paget's illustrations in _The Strand Magazine_ , where the short stories about Holmes and Watson had been published before they were bound. Shinichi remembers that, in one of those illustrations by Paget, Watson was sitting in an armchair in a similar pose to the Watson of this painting, facing the viewer in three-quarters profile. Whoever painted this oil painting must have known the illustration and used it as a reference.

In the left corner of the painting there is a signature, a small red "M", which is barely visible to him now that he is standing at the door but seemed quite distinctive to him when he stood in front of it before the police came. Although it looks rather florid and was written with one bold, lingering stroke of a thin brush so that a very imaginative person might interpret it as an "NL", it is still unmistakably an "M" to the less fanciful observer, meaning that the painter had only signed his painting with one letter (the first letter of a pseudonym, a forename, or a surname?) instead of giving away his initials.

No matter how impressive the painting looks... Being hard to impress and not at all a connoisseur when it comes to art, Shinichi would have dismissed the mysterious "M" from his mind and put the painting into the ready-made pigeonhole of "whimsical and usually distracting objects one can find on the scene of a crime" if the idea of Sherlock Tenoh didn't seem particularly disturbing to him. A female cross-dressing Sherlock who let herself be poisoned in her own dressing room between two acts of her own opera is an insult to a die-hard Holmes fan like Kudo Shinichi. Moreover, there is something else about this enigmatic "M", whose presence seems to linger in the air like the spicy scent of the fresh red lilies in the vase on the small round table, on which also the scores of Tenoh's _An Opera for One Singer and Piano_ are lying.

On a small shelf behind the painting, behind a biography of Vaslav Nijinsky, a Mozart biography, and two ballet books about the New York City Ballet and the Royal Ballet, Shinichi immediately discovered after entering the room three huge Sherlock Holmes books, which struck him as extraordinary, being an exquisite coloured illustrated edition he has never seen before. The label "Wordsworth" must be a fake, as Wordsworth is rather famous for its inexpensive student editions, whose three Sherlock Holmes volumes (resized monochrome reprints of _The Strand Magazine_ in paperback) Shinichi bought four years ago. The contents and Editor's Notes in Tenoh's Holmes books are the same as those of the Wordsworth edition. However, Tenoh's books are four times bigger in size, printed on quality paper, and apparently bound by hand in expensive full leather bindings. All of them bear Tenoh Haruka's magnificent "H.T." on the second page, proudly stating that they are her property; and the last of them ( _The Return of Sherlock Holmes_ ) contains a remarkable note on the third page, written in a beautiful and careless handwriting, which is harder to read than it appears at first glance.

"To the Sherlock of the 21st century," says the note in English. "I hope you like my presents. M."

Just when Shinichi was trying to figure out whether the note was meant to compliment or to mock, Commissario Lele Carrara arrived at the scene, raised a brow at the book in Shinichi's hand, politely asked Shinichi not to touch anything in the room lest he destroy important fingerprints (as if the fingerprints on the books could be linked to the murderer in any way!), and demanded that he prove his identity.

Now Shinichi is standing idly in front of the door—sandwiched between a bored sergeant and the nervous artistic director Luigi Gentile, who is wiping his forehead every five seconds—to watch Carrara and the technicians do their routine work. He can tell from their expressions that they have done it for so long that they can no longer see the corpse in the room as a being that was once alive. All of them except Carrara are doing their job in a fast, professional, and listless way, eagerly looking forward to going home to their family or their television. Carrara, on the other hand, shows interest in the case and in the corpse on the floor. Watching him talk to the technicians, Shinichi judges him to be an understanding boss and a friendly person, who could become a good ally once one has won his trust.

While Hino Rei is still singing at the top of her voice about freedom and love and the pain of letting go, Shinichi is thinking of Ran, who must still be sitting among the audience, and of Ai's empty seat four rows in front of his, which is certainly still empty at this time, as the ushers usually do not let anyone enter the hall once the act has already started. The Haibara Ai lookalike must have left the opera after the second act for some reason. For a moment, Shinichi lingers over the thought that it was really Ai, who left the opera after the second act because she had spotted him in the audience. If that was the case, it would be easy for him to find her, as Venice is the last place where she can hide without him finding her within a few days.

Nevertheless, he knows that this flicker of hope, which has lingered for over three years and is the reason why he still keeps on searching for her, will prove to be another Fata Morgana, which will disappear once he sees her double again. In the artificial light of the hall, surrounded by dark people, a reddish-blonde woman of the same build and with the same haircut might have stood out so much that he had mistaken her for Ai. If Ai had really miraculously survived that explosion in the middle of the sea—which she certainly did not—she would have given him and the Professor a sign at the earliest opportunity. There was no reason for her to hide or to run away as she often contemplated when the Black Organization still existed. Moreover, she had got rid of her paranoia long before the Organization went down.

The police and even the FBI had combed Japan for her for months lest she had been rescued by people who had been reckless enough to sail during that weather. Shinichi himself has paid all of the fishermen in the vicinity of the isles to which the current could have carried her, hoping that Hattori might have saved her by putting her into a box, which, if it had not hit any rocks, might have been stranded somewhere. Even after finding Hattori's body, they continued their search for Ai.

After eighteen months of futile search, Mr. James Black gave up. He could no longer use the FBI's funds to search for her if there was no sign that she was still alive. The local police had already abandoned the search after two months, telling Shinichi that she was certainly dead and that they couldn't search for her forever. Only the fishermen, whom Shinichi had promised a gigantic reward if they found her, continued searching until they, too, gave up by the end of last year.

Even if she had survived, Shinichi thinks, Ai would be a thirteen-year-old at the moment, not a grown-up woman. When he returned to the Professor to break the news to him that Hattori's corpse had been found and that it was unlikely that Ai, a wounded ten-year-old girl, had survived if Hattori, one of the most athletic people he knew and on top of that a very good swimmer, had not, he found the remaining pill of the antidote in her drawer. She had only made two pills, one for him and one for herself, which she, in the end, decided not to take.

The pill is still in a locked drawer of his office now, hidden in a small envelope among other things he will never look at again, little notes of the banter they had exchanged during class, which he had forgotten to throw away, old photos of the Detective Boys, and several snapshots of Conan, Ran, Toyama, and Hattori...

After the Professor's first heart attack, Shinichi decided to use his lying skills, which he had developed and refined during his time as Edogawa Conan, to serve a good purpose. Using the old voice-changing bow tie to call the Professor once or twice a week, he pretends to be Ai, who bore a grudge against Shinichi for leaving Hattori and her on the ship without coming back in time to help them before the explosion went off. After deceiving the Professor into believing that Ai had taken the antidote, returned to her life as Miyano Shiho, and was now working abroad, Shinichi could convince him that it wasn't a good time to tell Ran and the Detective Boys "the truth". As far as the Detective Boys and Ran know, Edogawa Conan has returned to his parents in the US and Haibara Ai has left with them. To keep up the lie, Shinichi is now using three separate mail accounts, one for Kudo Shinichi, one for Edogawa Conan, and one for Haibara Ai. He has even learned to change his handwriting to send the Professor, Ran, and the Detective Boys a few postcards from time to time.

Before then, Shinichi had never known that he would make a talented storyteller, that he could embellish his stories with little details so that they would sound believable even to himself. Slipping into Haibara's way of talking with ease, he can pretend to be annoyed, slightly irritated or content, depending on the weather or the food she is supposed to have eaten before calling the Professor. He can make up stories about annoying colleagues, ridiculous bosses with laughable quirks, helpful strangers, and superficial friends. But the most surprising thing is that he actually remembers all of the episodes of the invented Miyano Shiho's life as if he had really experienced them himself. It was as if everything he had only made up to tell the Professor had really happened: Kudo Shinichi's and Miyano Shiho's first meeting after Hattori's death, her mistrust when he told her about Ran's slow watch, and their momentary, uneasy truce after agreeing that the things in the past should be forgiven, although it didn't mean that either of them would ever forget.

Shinichi wanted to keep up the charade until the Professor felt well enough to accept the truth, meanwhile nurturing the hope that, having survived due to some unbelievable piece of luck, Ai might reappear in the meantime. However, the day he can ease his burden by telling the truth retreats farther into the future as time goes by. Seeing the happy faces of the Detective Boys when they gather at the Professor's place to exchange the news about Conan-kun and Haibara, noticing the twinkle in the Professor's eyes when he listens to them, and hearing Ran's excited voice on the phone reporting Conan-kun's latest achievements, it slowly dawns on Shinichi that the day of the truth will be a black day, and that living with a false hope might be better than having no hope at all.

x.

* * *

 

**As expected...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

As expected, the medical examiner—a tiny man in his late fifties, who appears to be on friendly terms with Commissario Carrara—is uncertain about the cause of Tenoh's death.

"I can't tell you officially before the autopsy, but I think she must have died naturally," he tells Carrara and Shinichi in a hushed voice. "From the look of her corpse, she might as well have died in her sleep. It's for the best... given the circumstances."

"It seems so, especially if we don't find any trace of poison in the cup," Carrara remarks. "So, Signora Haruka Tenoh, who looked like the paragon of good health, apparently drank a cup of water, then collapsed and died of an unknown disease."

"That's indeed very strange," the medical examiner admits. "In my whole life, I've never come across a case like this one. I'm looking forward to the autopsy."

"When can you tell me the results?"

"Tomorrow morning. It might take me a bit longer if I don't find anything. But I think I'll be able to give you a call by tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

Meanwhile, Tenoh's corpse has been put onto a stretcher and is lying there like someone who has just fallen asleep. In spite of the growing impatience of the white-clad attendants, who are eager to finish their job as fast as possible to go home, Carrara insists that they wait until the last person has left the opera before conveying Tenoh's corpse to the hospital morgue. The technicians can leave, he orders in an authoritative voice, but the attendants must stay. It is out of question to parade Tenoh's corpse around, especially when reporters might already be in the house.

"Do you have a theory you'd like to share?" Carrara asks Shinichi after the technicians and the medical examiner have left. They have switched from Italian to English automatically, as Carrara seems inordinately proud of his hard-earned fluency.

"I don't have any theories. At first glance, it looks as if she died while drinking a cup of water. There is no evidence that a poison was used."

Gaining Commissario Lele Carrara's trust was easier than expected, for the internet, accessible on Carrara's 3G smartphone, is full of Kudo Shinichi fan websites with Shinichi's photos and newspaper articles about him. While most of them are in Japanese, there are also a few in English which have put their own gloss on the story of how "Japan's greatest consulting detective Shinichi Kudo" has "single-handedly" brought down the Black Organization while avoiding a bloodshed. With such glowing references, Shinichi has naturally gone up in Carrara's estimation.

"Andrea is right. It would be for the best if she died naturally," Carrara remarks. "Signora Tenoh had many prestigious friends, and I know my superior... If we don't find a trace of poison, I'm sure I'll be ordered to stop the investigation."

Despite being of the opinion that it's pointless to worry about the investigation before knowing the results of the autopsy, Shinichi can comprehend Carrara's dilemma. Tenoh Haruka wasn't just a talented young pianist whose name would fade into obscurity a few months after her death, only to be remembered by her colleagues, real fans of classical music, and her own friends and family. From the things he has found out about her on the internet, she belonged to the upper crust, moved in the highest social circles, was a former motor racing star and, on top of that, a well-known figure in fashionable, artistic, and political circles. Investigating the case without finding a poison would be regarded as confirming unsubstantiated rumours about her death, something Carrara cannot afford to do if he wants to keep his position in the Questura.

"Would you mind me following you around during the investigation? This case really intrigues me."

"It's my pleasure... especially because, as a private detective, you're at liberty to do things I'm not allowed to do," Carrara replies with a meaningful smile. "Since the autopsy is conducted by Andrea, I'm sure we'll get the results as soon as possible. In the meantime, I'd feel honoured to have you in my company when I question the people who talked to Signora Tenoh tonight. Would you like to have another look at this room before we go?"

Inspecting the dressing room for a second time, Shinichi learns that there is nothing worth mentioning apart from what he has already seen. There have been talks about Tenoh's bag, which Tenoh presumably left in the backstage café when she picked up the cup of water. Unfortunately, Carrara has had the bag sent to the Questura before Shinichi had the chance to look at it.

"May I have a look at the contents of her bag?"

"Tomorrow at the Questura," Carrara says, fishing his notebook out of the inner pocket of his coat. "But I can show you a list of its contents."

Two English versions of _The Phantom of the Opera_ (the original by Gaston Leroux and another version by Susan Kay), a wallet with a bit of money and a credit card under her name, a mechanical pencil, an eraser, and a book ( _Awareness Through Movement_ ) by Moshe Feldenkrais with an old photo, which functioned as a bookmark...

"The photo Tenoh used as a bookmark—can I have a look at the pictures of it on your phone?"

"You don't overlook anything, do you? Here, I've taken pictures of both sides because there is a note on the back. It probably doesn't have anything to do with the case, but I'd still be thankful if you could translate the contents of the note to me. It's written in Japanese."

The photo shows young Tenoh Haruka, about sixteen or seventeen years old, with sandy blonde hair, which seems to have become lighter as she got older, standing on a beach in front of the breathtaking panorama of the sea and the setting sun. She is wearing jeans, a brown leather jacket, and a red scarf while the man next to her is clad in a white lab coat and white trousers. Despite his clothes and his large round glasses, he reminds Shinichi slightly of Subaru Okiya. Both of them are smirking into the camera.

After swiping to the photo Carrara took of the note, Shinichi zooms in and needs a few seconds to decipher the almost illegible handwriting, which resembles abstract doodles in faded black ink.

"For SB. Good luck to your next race and remember what I told you about M. Professor T," says the note, which seems to have been scribbled down with an old ballpoint pen. Apart from "SB", "M", and "T", which are letters in the Roman alphabet, the words are written in kanji.

"SB and M," Carrara says. "I can't make head or tail of it."

"Professor T... He looks familiar to me."

"He was her professor at Infinity," Carrara remarks. "Signora Tenoh was there during her racing career."

Infinity... It was a prestigious private academy in Azabu Juuban, which was burned down when Shinichi was fifteen or sixteen, although he can't remember more about the case because he was already busy solving murder cases at that time. He can only remember reading about it in the news: a luxurious private institution only reserved for gifted young people, prodigies and teenagers with exceptional talents... The person who burned it down was a certain Professor Tomoe Souichi.

_Kudo, look: Professor Tomoe, the mad scientist, is a member of the Organization. He even has a cocktail code name._

Who said that to him? Ai... or Hattori? It must have been Hattori, because Ai had been particularly quiet that night, conspicuously melancholic and taciturn even by her own standard.

"How come you know so much about Tenoh?" he asks Carrara.

"I was a fan of hers," Carrara grudgingly admits. "I'd have liked to come to the opera tonight, but it was impossible for me to get any tickets because they were all sold out when I came. It's even worse with the new production of _The Phantom of the Opera_ this weekend. Whenever Signor Seiya Kou appears on stage, you could camp in front of the house a night in advance and still don't get a ticket. The women are all completely besotted with him."

The image of Suzuki Sonoko and Ran pitching camp in front of the main entrance of La Fenice immediately springs to mind, and Shinichi shakes his head at the absurdity of it.

"I think I'm done here," he informs Carrara after taking several photos of the few objects which are of interest to him: Tenoh's initials, the note he found in the Sherlock Holmes novels, and the oil painting. "I'd like to have a glass of water before we interview the witnesses, though. Can I have a look at the backstage café at the end of the corridor?"

The backstage café—as Shinichi overheard from the sergeants while he was waiting with Gentile in the corridor—is a converted dressing room with a small bar where the musicians can have a drink during breaks without leaving the backstage area.

"A good idea. Signora Tenoh seemed to have taken the china cup from there."

x.

No sooner did they step out into the corridor than a sergeant approaches Carrara with the list of people who have access to the backstage area and have talked to Tenoh Haruka in the course of the evening. Luigi Gentile, who has been a nervous wreck throughout the whole affair, has gone home to fret about the disaster that appeared so early in his career after giving his witness account.

"Signor Gentile seems to be of a fragile disposition," Carrara remarks, and Shinichi silently agrees with him. Apart from the fact that Gentile went to Tenoh's room to look for "him" and found Tenoh dead on the carpet, he "didn't have anything to do with the matter," as he repeated over and over again. Despite knowing that Tenoh was female, Gentile seems to be the type that desperately tries to keep up appearances.

He spent the second interval innocently drinking champagne at the bar, visible for anybody to see, Gentile wailed. Afterwards, about fifteen minutes before the scheduled time of the third act, he went to the backstage café to chat with Signora Makoto Kino, one of Signora Hino's close friends, who often waited for her during the rehearsals and also during the performance. Signora Kino was on the phone with a Japanese friend and ignored him most of the time so that he left the backstage area again. In the foyer, a few minutes before the third act, he met Signor Mamoru Chiba, who was talking on the phone as well. The invention of mobile phones only made human communication more difficult than it already was, Gentile complained, as no one had time for a nice little chat face to face anymore. A pleasant surprise came in the form of Signor Seiya Kou's charming secretary, who spent a moment in the foyer to talk to him about the weather before she complained about her headaches, whereupon he walked her back to Signor Kou's dressing room at the end of the corridor, where she could rest on the sofa.

Leaving Signor Kou's dressing room, he looked at his watch and noticed that it was about time for the third act, so he proceeded to "Signor" Tenoh, who had a tendency to forget time whenever "he" was absorbed in a new novel, to remind "him" to appear on stage.

However, when he knocked at the door of "Signor" Tenoh's dressing room, "Signor" Tenoh only told him very brusquely that "he" was still busy and would appear in fifteen minutes. It was not unusual for Tenoh to delay the last part of a concert after a break for fifteen minutes to half an hour whenever "he" felt like it, which was actually the reason why they got rid of the gong announcing the end of an interval. From past experience, Gentile knew that musical geniuses always had their quirks one simply had to accept. So he obligingly climbed the stairs to Hino's dressing room to inform her that "Signor" Tenoh needed more time and that he would fetch her when "Signor" Tenoh was ready. She only shrugged and continued to study her scores. Signora Hino was known to be a very serious musician.

When he returned fifteen minutes later, "Signor" Tenoh told him to wait for another fifteen minutes, which, though it irritated him, was just like Tenoh. So he simply followed "his" order and returned to the bar to down another drink (and to fret about the realization that no one was interested in him, Shinichi mentally adds). At half-past eight he came back and found Tenoh lying on the floor. Tenoh still looked alive, so he didn't get the idea to feel for "his" pulse. But it was already so late for the concert that he got into a panic. He rushed into the hall to ask for Signor Chiba's help and went with Signor Chiba to Signora Hino's dressing room, where the three of them hurriedly decided to go on stage at once so that they could kill two birds with one stone by continuing the concert and getting a doctor.

"And I almost forgot to add that I met Signor Seiya Kou at the bar before I went to Signor Tenoh for the second time. He had been away for the whole second interval and just came back through the main entrance," Gentile said with a tiny gleam of malice in his eyes.

"He was here tonight in the backstage area?" Carrara asked in surprise.

"Wednesday night and Thursday night, he came with his secretary and barricaded himself with her in the dressing room at the end of the corridor to practice his make-up for _The Phantom of the Opera_... Tonight they came through the exit, too, but Signor Kou didn't stay long because Signor Tenoh and he had a huge quarrel. They often quarrelled in the last weeks. This time it was even worse than usual because Signor Kou stormed out of the house after the first act and returned after the second interval to ask me where his secretary was. Afterwards he seemed to have been walking around in the backstage area. If you want to know more about Signor Tenoh's death tonight, it might be better to ask him than me."

The poor man is green with envy, Shinichi remembers thinking. But now that he is replaying the scene in his mind, he wonders if it was rather romantic jealousy which he has seen in his eyes. The talk between the blonde woman and the usher he overheard in front of the hall immediately came to mind, making him wonder whether Gentile's behaviour had something to do with his unrequited attraction to Seiya Kou's secretary.

"Signor Seiya Kou is a singer, isn't he? Why would a singer need a secretary to follow him around?" Carrara has asked, rubbing salt into Gentile's wound.

"He is disorganized and hot-headed and likes to take things easy," Gentile said indignantly. "If anybody needs a secretary to take care of his schedule and his papers and his way of life, it would be him."

"Why did you call the opera tonight a concert?" Shinichi asked.

"But it was a concert, wasn't it? A collection of songs for soprano with piano accompaniment... Have you ever watched an opera for one singer and piano? The title is certainly confusing. I don't know what Signor Tenoh wanted to say with it."

x.

After downing a glass of water and three capsules of APAH—the painkillers for the severe migraine from which Shinichi has been suffering ever since he took the permanent antidote—Carrara and Shinichi leave the inconspicuous backstage café and proceed to the exit by turning right at the end of the corridor.

"There is a button under the counter, which releases the turnstile blocking the exit," Carrara tells Shinichi. "That's why I'd like to have a talk with the portiere." He doesn't need to say more because the rest is self-explanatory. The backstage area and the corridor leading to the dressing rooms can be accessed either by passing the concert hall and climbing on the stage—in which case one has to pass one of the ushers outside the hall—or by coming through the exit—in which case one has to pass the portiere.

Guido Moretti, the portiere, is an intellectual-looking young man with ash-blonde hair and a pair of passive blue eyes behind square, black-rimmed glasses.

"So Haruka Tenoh is really dead?" he asks curiously, not without a sign of sorrow, although it is the kind of anonymous sympathy one feels for something beautiful or impressive that had to disappear, not for a person one has known and liked.

"He died before the third act," Carrara says gravely, without giving Tenoh's real gender away.

"Almost as if words could kill," Moretti grimaces playfully. "I bet he will regret that he told him to go to hell the last time they met."

"Who are you talking about?" Carrara asks.

"Seiya Kou," Moretti points at the large poster of _The Phantom of the Opera_ on the wall, smiling. "The new 'Phantom'. He and Tenoh had quite a row tonight just before the first act."

"What was it about?"

"I think it was about Seiya's secretary, but I don't understand Japanese and only heard it from a friend of mine. Tenoh said something like it was time to make it public, and mentioned a letter to Seiya's agent, and Seiya said that it was none of Tenoh's business and that he should go to hell for messing with other people's private lives."

"Private life? Interesting choice of word when it comes to a secretary," Carrara grins.

"I thought so, too," Moretti grins back. "She is extremely easy on the eye, and he can barely keep his hands off her even in public ... But it's not my business to stick my nose into other people's love affairs, and I don't want to get into trouble for spreading rumours, you know."

"I see his secretary has been in the backstage area, too," Carrara says after a glance at the sheet of paper in his hand. "Do they often visit the opera together?"

"No, they seldom watch an opera together; and most people don't know her here because they usually go to his dressing room straight away after they arrive... They're literally joined at the hips, if you know what I mean. My friend even says that they're cohabiting. I myself have seen them together on his boat, in various cafés, and in the cinema for many times. She seemed to be a good friend of Tenoh, too. They talked with each other whenever they met, and Seiya didn't seem pleased with it. A secretary... Don't make me laugh." Moretti snickers into his fist.

"Your friend is Japanese?" Shinichi asks.

"Half Japanese, half Russian," Moretti answers, eying Shinichi with intellectual curiosity. "She speaks both languages fluently." Blushing, he adds nervously: "I hope I didn't cause trouble for Seiya by telling you about the row he had with Tenoh. They were usually pretty civil to each other. It's just that their personalities clashed because they were so alike."

"And the name of your friend is?" Carrara asks, fishing a pen out of his pocket.

"Nadia... Nadia Gorowitz," Moretti stammers. "She works here part-time as an usher, although tonight she was free and only came here for the concert. If you want to ask her about the quarrel, please don't tell her that I mentioned it to you. She is so in love with Seiya that she would hate me forever if she found out that I couldn't keep my mouth shut."

Further questioning reveals that Kou Seiya and his beautiful secretary have come with Hino Rei and Chiba Mamoru in Kou's motorboat, which they often use to drive to La Fenice. Instead of listening to the concert, Kou and his secretary spent the first act in Kou's dressing room, which is located at the end of the corridor directly next to the small backstage café, where Hino likes to have her refreshments during the breaks. The row between Tenoh and Kou, though short and in hushed voices, took place before the concert directly in front of the same "café," which is visible to the portiere and his friend—who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend—Nadia Gorowitz.

No one came through the exit during the concert except for "Seiya" (Moretti says Kou Seiya is called "Seiya" by everyone with the exception of Luigi Gentile), who had left the opera house in a hurry after the first act and seemed to have returned through the main entrance during the second—as he didn't come back through the exit—just to go out again in the second interval. Moretti couldn't remember the exact time he released the turnstile for him. But he came back at the end of the second interval before the third act started.

"Signor Seiya Kou doesn't seem to enjoy the same popularity with men as with women," Carrara remarks with a grin on their way back to the corridor which connects the backstage café, Kou's, and Tenoh's dressing room.

"It's natural, isn't it," Shinichi shrugs, thinking that attractive men have never been popular among their own sex, "although I'm more interested in his secretary after what I've heard. He had quite a reputation during his days as a teen idol... She seems to have tamed him."

"Well, you're going to see her soon although I'd like to question Signora Makoto Kino first. She is the one who brought Signora Tenoh the cup of water. Afterwards I'd like to talk to Signora Rei Hino and Signor Mamoru Chiba, who worked with Signora Tenoh before she died before we proceed to Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Shiho Miyano."

The sound of her name cuts through the noise of the final curtain calls from the hall, leaving an echo of it in his mind, and Shinichi feels his head spinning at the startling revelation.

"Is everything all right?" Carrara asks, grabbing his arm.

"Can you please repeat that, Seiya Kou and who?"

"Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Shiho Miyano, the secretary you're so curious about... They're waiting for us in his dressing room at the moment. Since they seem to enjoy each other's company so much, we can let them wait until we're done here."

x.


	4. Part One: What are the odds...

 

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**What are the odds that...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

What are the odds that a woman with Miyano Shiho's face appears in the same opera house during the same evening as another woman with Miyano Shiho's name? And what are the odds that there is another woman in the world who has both Ai's name and her looks? There is no reason why anyone should want to impersonate Miyano Shiho either, especially now that the Black Organization no longer exists. No matter how he looks at it, the reddish-blonde woman who caught his eye in the hall must have been _her_.

Past the initial state of stupefied amazement, Shinichi feels a wave of tremendous relief wash over him. She is alive... And coincidence or fate, or whatever you want to call it, has once again brought her back to him. Right now she is sitting in the dressing room at the end of the corridor, waiting for him, and there is only a small wooden door keeping them apart...

For a fleeting moment, Shinichi considers pushing open—or kicking open or knocking down—that blasted door and pull her into his arms, Carrara and Seiya be damned.

Yet his joy is short-lived, for only a few seconds after the first wave of exhilaration swept through him, he is already seething with rage. While every day of his life was filled with guilt and sorrow and despair about her disappearance and her supposed death, she was here in Venice, alive and kicking, without bothering to give him or at least the Professor a call. Hattori's death must have seemed to her like the ideal chance to disappear from their lives even though she certainly couldn't have foreseen it. The evil-eyed wretch must have planned her escape long before that and hidden an extra pill of the antidote from him, throwing almost four years of close cooperation and companionship away for... Well, for what? Certainly not for organizing the schedule of Kou Seiya! She is not the type to waste her time and energy over a celebrity crush, and it's even less convincing to Shinichi that she might be in a more intimate relationship with the one-time teen idol than a personal secretary would be. Seiya's love life has always been a favoured subject of idle gossips. This wouldn't be the first or the last time that someone—one of his countless ex-girlfriends or their betrayed ex-boyfriends?—spreads a scurrilous wild rumour about him.

Just like his state of euphoria, Shinichi's anger soon evaporates. It is absurd to assume that she abandoned the Professor and the Detective Boys just to go abroad and work as a secretary, especially since she could have left with a simple "goodbye and let's keep in touch" if that was really what she wanted to do with her life. In addition, she must have been deeply affected by Hattori's death and felt the urge to investigate the happenings of that night three years ago. Ai must have had a valid reason for her disappearance, and perhaps she did write and the scatterbrained Professor accidentally threw the unopened letter with the advertisements away. It wouldn't be the first time such a thing happens.

Studying the picture of Kou Seiya he saw in the foyer again in his mind, Shinichi reassures himself that the singer looks quite the opposite of what he thinks is Ai's type. Gin, whom she apparently had an affair with before he ended it by shooting her sister, was tall and angular, a dangerous predator with hollow cheeks and piercing eyes. And even though Ran has told Shinichi that Kou Seiya looks different in the video clips she has seen, photos—like mirrors—usually don't lie too much unless you tamper with them. A male version of Tenoh Haruka with an overlong ponytail and silver earrings might be considered excessively attractive in a world where androgynous beauty is the latest fashion. But Shinichi can imagine Ai's gaze trailing languidly from Kou's long, curvy eyelashes to his high cheekbones, resting for a moment on his tousled short hair and his moon-shaped silver earring before she yawns in boredom, dismissing the owner of such a head as a wimp and a sissy at first glance. Romantic feelings—if she is still capable of any after the disaster with Gin!—usually don't develop after such a first impression.

However, the picturesque scene of Gin's carefully groomed long blonde hair flying in the wind suddenly flashes across Shinichi's mind; and the Ai in his imagination begins to smile as she discovers in the nape of Seiya's neck his lush and silky ponytail, which cascades down to his back in a large wave, ending in a loose and quite charming natural curl...

After trading darkness for light, she might have traded toughness for beauty as well. And now that Shinichi is thinking about it, he realizes she might have always had a weakness for flamboyant long-haired men...

"Is everything all right with you?" Carrara asks, tightening his grip around Shinichi's arm. Judging from the look on Carrara's face, Shinichi deduces that Carrara has not asked him that question for the first time.

"I was startled to hear her name, that's all... If Shiho Miyano is the person I think she is, she is an acquaintance of mine. I didn't expect to find her here in Venice."

"What a coincidence. But you looked as if you were about to faint... Was she once your 'secretary,' too?"

Shinichi feels himself blushing at the implication.

"No, she was just a classmate. We lost touch with each other after finishing school."

"So how was she like? Irresistible, I suppose, considering that somebody like Signor Seiya Kou 'can't take his hands off her even in public?'"

Fairly attractive, Shinichi answers. Not charming at all though very good-looking, beautiful, one could say...

"I suppose she broke quite a number of hearts?"

"A few, but not as many as she could have. She is smart and witty but sarcastic and unpredictable and extremely difficult to get along with... I've never understood how the boys could have fallen in love with a girl like her."

"Well, there's no accounting for taste," Carrara remarks. "She sounds exciting, and Signor Seiya Kou seems the type of man that enjoys a challenge. I've heard from a colleague that he has been chased by lovestruck women ever since he came here. His crazy female admirers even robbed him of his luggage once and we had great difficulty getting it back. The police suggested that he get a bodyguard, but he didn't want one."

"When did he come to Venice?"

"About four years ago, I think, although I heard he also travels a lot and leaves Venice on a regular basis for other cities, which is normal for a singer and actor. It's generally assumed that he is lodging in a hotel, presumably the Danieli or the Gritti, whenever he is here. But if he is really cohabiting with Signora Miyano, he probably has an apartment here, which he somehow managed to hide from the public."

"It's highly unlikely, considering how popular he is. It's hard to hide such a thing in a city like Venice."

"You mean Signora Gorowitz only made it up? Maybe... But my colleague said that he thought Signor Seiya Kou behaved like somebody who tried to stay inconspicuous even though that wasn't really possible with all the girls tailing him. He also said Signor Seiya Kou seemed less flashy than the impression one gets of him after hearing about his scandals. Now that I know about his secretary, his behaviour begins to make sense to me. It sounds quite romantic, isn't it? A star holidaying in Venice, hiding from the fans and the media to have some private time with his first serious lo—"

"Holidaying? Isn't he employed at La Fenice?" Shinichi asks, wondering why there is a photo of Seiya in the foyer if he doesn't even sing here regularly.

"Yes, but of course not permanently. There is no such thing for a solo singer like him, and I doubt he would have accepted such an offer. He appears in only one production every year, which is always such a great success that they practically begged him on their knees to return. I'm looking forward to meeting the man since I've never managed to get a ticket to hear him. He is very famous for his beautiful voice, you know, which is probably why he is cast as the Phantom this season although he is still much too young for the role."

Judging from the change in background noise, the final curtain calls have just ended. From the hall, the applause has made way for a constant rustle, murmur, and chatter as people are rushing out into the foyer. Hino Rei and Chiba Mamoru have left the stage and are now walking down the corridor towards them, both looking dejected and tired.

"Haruka is dead, isn't she?" Hino asks in Italian, with a speaking voice which is slightly husky and much deeper than Shinichi has expected after hearing the high notes she hit without any detectable difficulty when she was onstage.

"Sadly, yes," Carrara says. "I'm very sorry to—"

"Are you the commissario in charge of the investigation?" Hino cuts him short. Her slightly slanted eyes are an interesting shade of deep violet and heavily defined by a black eyeliner, Shinichi observes. The eyeliner has smudged a bit, which—added to her redden eyes—gives off the impression that she has just been crying.

Noticing that he is watching her, Hino shoots Shinichi an irritated look, which immediately turns into something different. A strange mixture between surprise, disbelief, dislike and... recognition? Most probably, she has seen his face on the Japanese news, and the only reason she didn't immediately identify him as The Detective Who Brought Down the Black Organization was because she was too preoccupied with Tenoh Haruka's death, which she, unlike Gentile, seemed to have immediately guessed.

Unfazed by her brusqueness, Carrara introduces himself to Chiba and her, and shows them his badge. He would like to ask them a few routine questions regarding the happenings of tonight, he begins with a smile, before—

"I'm going to my dressing room now to get out of this dress and these shoes. You can knock in a few minutes if you really want to interrogate me," Hino interjects and—without waiting for an answer—turns and climbs the narrow staircase to her dressing room, the hem of her long mauve silk dress trailing on the floor after her.

"You can ask me questions in the meantime," Chiba Mamoru suggests in flawless English while acknowledging Shinichi's presence with a civil nod indicating that he remembers their encounter at the entrance of the concert hall. Even though he has lost his polished look to his exhaustion, Chiba still possesses an air of superiority due to his impressive height, his sleek, short black hair, his regular, handsome features, and his staggeringly blue eyes. His voice, deep and warm, has an oddly calming effect on Shinichi.

It never occurred to him that an amateur musician could replace "Signor Tenoh" during the third act of an opera during its world premiere, Carrara says appreciatively. Based on what he could hear behind the stage, the performance wasn't bad either.

"It went fairly well, but it was, of course, not unprepared," Chiba admits. "I told Haruka once in passing that I'd like to give a concert after finishing my studies before I give up music and focus on my line of work. She must have remembered it because, after finishing the opera, she insisted that I study the piano part so well that I could perform it as her stand-in during her concert in Rome next week. She even studied it with me and forced me to carry the scores around so that we could always work with each other whenever possible. Since she often returns to her house in Japan, I received free lessons there on weekends for over three months..." He smiles at the remembrance. "She was an extremely generous woman, who lived her life in a very independent and rather magnificent way."

She certainly was an impressive person, one of the giants of motor sports and music. But isn't it unusual for a pianist to have a substitute, Carrara asks in surprise. It's not like they are opera singers, who usually have an understudy.

No, it's rather unusual, Chiba agrees. However, Haruka was anything but conventional and had a very strong personality. "Mr Gentile," for example, never dared to say anything in her presence for fear of opposing her. To be fair, no one ever wanted to oppose her. Everyone automatically followed her orders because she managed to be charming, authoritative, and convincing at the same time.

"No one opposed her? What about Signor Seiya Kou, who is said to have quarrelled with her a lot?"

Seiya is the only exception to the rule, Chiba admits. But Seiya has always been rather bohemian himself, just like Haruka. And "quarrel" isn't the right word for the small disagreements they always had.

"What kind of relationship did they have?"

A bit more than acquaintances, a bit less than friends... They were colleagues who had the greatest respect for each other but didn't share the same view on many different things...

"But what about their personal relationship? I heard they didn't like each other very much."

Chiba throws Carrara a slightly irritated look.

"They didn't understand each other, but Seiya is actually one of the few people Haruka admired," he answers, carefully steering the conversation away from the topic of their personal relationship. "She once told me the first time she saw him she knew immediately that he would always have the world at his feet. He radiated genuine star quality, she said."

Taking down Chiba Mamoru's particulars, Carrara and Shinichi learn that Chiba is thirty years old, has just finished his medical studies, and is currently living in Tokyo, Azabu Juuban, with his wife, who would have liked to come with him to Venice but had to stay in Tokyo because she had to look after their cat until a friend has time to take care of it for them. They are going to meet up on Monday to have a trip in Italy together, during which he will also perform as Haruka's stand-in in Rome and Florence before he begins his career as a surgeon and the stressful time for them starts. She was actually the one he was talking with on the phone during the second interval when "Mr Gentile" unsuccessfully tried to engage him in conversation. He met Haruka through his wife as well, who has a closely knit circle of friends in which Rei, Makoto, Seiya, and Haruka belong.

"Didn't you feel Signora Tenoh's pulse when you saw her lying on the floor?" Carrara asks, giving up on using the male title of address for Tenoh. "Why did Signor Gentile have to search for a doctor if you are one?"

"To be honest, I knew that she was dead although she certainly didn't look like that," Chiba answers calmly. "I inspected her and checked her pulse while Mr Gentile wasn't looking. It wasn't difficult because he is a very nervous and inattentive person unlike Rei, who immediately guessed everything. I'm impressed that she still managed to sing the third act as if nothing had happened. She has nerves of steel, in contrast to him."

And why did he try to hide the fact that Signora Tenoh was dead instead of telling Signor Gentile to call the police immediately, Carrara asks Chiba with a frown.

Because of the opera, Chiba answers, looking directly into Carrara's eyes without showing a trace of nervousness or irritation. Mr Gentile is high-strung and neurotic, a fact which everyone knows just by looking at him, as the poor devil always wears gloves for fear of germs. If Chiba had told him about Haruka's death, Mr Gentile wouldn't have had the nerve to go on stage and make the announcement that Haruka wouldn't appear for the third act. And breaking up the opera in the middle of its world premiere in a house like the Teatro La Fenice is out of the question, Chiba solemnly says. As her stand-in, he owes it to Haruka that her opera continues until the end, with or without her.

"As a doctor, I can tell you that Haruka died naturally," Chiba continues. "I didn't detect anything about her which suggested that she had been poisoned although one could get that idea after seeing the cup on the carpet. She had a peaceful expression on her face, and her dressing room looked tidy and undisturbed to me."

He didn't talk to Haruka during the evening because he thought she needed time for herself to focus on her performance, Chiba tells them. After arriving in Seiya's motorboat with Rei, Seiya, and his secretary Shiho—Makoto actually came alone because she wanted to surprise Haruka and Rei with fresh flowers—he immediately went through the backstage area and the concert hall to the foyer after wishing Rei and Haruka the usual "break a leg." After a while, Makoto came with two large bouquets of lilies and brought them to Rei and Haruka before she joined him in the foyer until the opera began.

"Seiya Kou and Shiho Miyano... Did they both have tickets for the opera?" Shinichi asks.

Yes, they did, as Haruka gave them free tickets.

"But I heard they were in Signor Kou's dressing room during the first act," Carrara remarks.

"Makoto told me during the first break that Shiho had been suffering from her headaches, which was the reason why she didn't attend the first act and why Seiya, who didn't want to leave her alone, stayed with her. She attended the second act, though. But then her migraine seemed to have come back because she returned to Seiya's dressing room directly afterwards."

"But Signor Seiya Kou was not in the hall during the second act," Carrara remarks. "Two people told us he went out after the first act. Do you know why he went out?"

For a moment, Chiba seems lost for words. Then he looks thoughtfully into the distance and sighs.

"I don't know. Seiya has always been impulsive, acting on his immediate feelings. He is like a child with his boundless energy. Perhaps he just went out to get Shiho some painkillers."

Unlike Gentile, Chiba can't say anything regarding the whereabouts of either Hino, Kino, or Kou during the second interval. He had been standing in front of the main entrance of La Fenice, "talking" on the phone—meaning he used the internet on his 3G smartphone to voice-chat—with his wife, whom he gave his undivided attention. When he noticed that other people were returning to the hall, he strolled back as well and stayed near the entrance to the concert hall where he continued to chat with his wife, who had been telling him a few quite amusing stories so that he completely lost track of time. He didn't bother to look at his watch because he knew the ushers would call the audience in and close the doors to the hall a few minutes before the third act started. And, knowing "Haruka", he knew very well that the third act wouldn't start on time. It wasn't until his wife told him she had to go to bed (because it was already half past three a.m. in Tokyo due to the seven hours time difference) that Chiba finally realized that it was already thirty minutes past the scheduled time of the third act, time for Haruka to appear on stage. So he returned to his seat where he stayed until Mr Gentile appeared and dragged him to Haruka's dressing room.

"Signora Tenoh must have died between a quarter past eight and half past eight," Carrara says. "You were probably standing in front of the hall at that time. Can you remember seeing anybody who has access to the backstage area in the foyer? If Signora Tenoh's death tonight turns out to be murder, which I really hope not, you might be their only alibi."

"I remember Mr Gentile trying to talk with me, but I don't remember when. It must have been before a quarter past eight. Some time afterwards he was chatting with Shiho, Seiya's secretary. I think he has a crush on her. A few minutes afterwards I saw Seiya talking to an usher and then to Mr Gentile at the bar. Rei was probably studying her scores after drinking a cup of tea. She always performs it as a ritual. And Makoto was probably in the backstage café because she was still there when we discovered Haruka on the floor. Haruka's death was a great shock to her. But since she owed it to Haruka to watch the third act of the opera, she returned to the hall with us when we returned to the stage."

Makoto, one of Rei's and his wife's best friends, was Haruka's greatest fan, Chiba explains. She had one of the seats near the stage between his and Seiya's. Right now she is probably in the ladies' room to weep about Haruka's death in private. While she is a very affectionate and sensitive woman, she is also very proud. He hopes that she won't be questioned for too long, as he fears a breakdown.

"I heard from one of my sergeants that she was the one who brought Signora Tenoh the cup of water, according to the portiere, who saw her walk in the direction of Signora Tenoh's dressing room with the cup in her hand," Carrara remarks. "Does she always bring Signora Tenoh water in the intervals?"

Chiba frowns.

"No, she doesn't. Haruka once told me she usually didn't perform very often at La Fenice although she sometimes gave a concert now and then. Moreover, Makoto might have been her fan but was never so close to her that she would always accompany her to the backstage area. Tonight Makoto was actually only in the backstage café because of Rei. It was probably the first time that Makoto brought Haruka the cup of water... Perhaps Haruka herself asked her for it? Although I wasn't there, I can imagine that was what actually happened because I've known both of them for a while."

"We heard that Signor Seiya Kou had a row with Signor Tenoh tonight," Carrara says, changing the topic.

Chiba sighs.

"I don't know anything about that, but I can tell you one thing for sure: Whatever they had been disagreeing about wasn't the cause of Haruka's death. I know the first thing the police will suspect when somebody like Haruka suddenly dies during the interval of a concert is that she must have been murdered. But this is ridiculous. First, I don't know what she could have died of... And second: Rei, Makoto, Seiya, and I are all more interested in Haruka staying alive than seeing her dead. Both Rei and Makoto looked up to Haruka; Haruka supported Rei's career; I wasn't very close to Haruka but I admired her genius; and Seiya... well… he admired her musical skills as well and was simply too uninterested in her personally to want her dead. Apart from that, he is simply not the type to harbour a secret grudge against anybody. Even Shiho, whom I've only met a few times, seems to respect Haruka. Or do you suspect Mr Gentile, who didn't even dare to look Haruka in the eye, or the absent-minded portiere, who always reads his romance novels under the counter when he thinks no one is looking? He didn't have anything against Haruka either, judging from what I've seen. And if he was the one who told you about Haruka and Seiya's fight tonight, I wouldn't pay much attention to his words if I were you. Rei told me he is in love with one of Seiya's obsessive fans, who left him to pursue Seiya. He also seems to have an overactive imagination, judging from his choice of reading material."

"Oh, I didn't suspect anybody. I was only curious," Carrara quickly changes his approach. "I'm actually a great fan of Signor Seiya Kou myself. And since I've heard they were quarrelling about his beautiful secretary, I'm intrigued by the love story behind it. Signor Seiya Kou has the reputation of being quite a heartbreaker, who doesn't let anybody tie him down, and I was interested in the woman who fascinates him so much that he lets her live with him."

"I don't know about any love story," Chiba says, his frown deepening. Surprisingly, Carrara's new approach ruffles his feathers even more than the old one. "Seiya is a famous celebrity who attracts more attention than he wants, and journalists seem to have set themselves the task of labelling any pretty woman he talks to for longer than a few seconds his lover. You can't imagine how many problems it caused for him and the girls he befriended, especially when those girls were already in a relationship with someone else."

"So he has befriended a lot of women?"

No, on the contrary, Chiba protests. Actually, none at all if one sticks to the facts. It's just the usual rumours about Seiya which already started when he was a teen idol. But contrary to the rumours, Seiya was rather innocent, more interested in music, sports, and childish pranks and not so much in women.

"Signora Shiho Miyano and he seem to spend a lot of time with each other, though."

Oh, yes, that's true, Chiba says, looking strangely relieved. Seiya likes her very much because she is witty and intelligent, and they often go out with each other in their free time.

"Is it true that they are living together?"

Yes, but Seiya says it's because she is good company and he hates to be alone in his apartment.

"And you're trying to tell me that she is really only his secretary?" Carrara raises his brow at Chiba.

"Well, I don't know anything about them. But I don't know why he should live with her and try to hide their relationship at the same time if they were a couple. He usually does whatever he wants to without caring much about appearances. They link arms when they go out together, which is probably not unusual between good friends in Italy but gives a misleading impression of their relationship. They are both very beautiful people who capture the public imagination, and he likes to flirt with her a bit, which only makes matters worse. But since Seiya insists that she is only his secretary, their relationship probably stops there. He is the frank type that usually doesn't lie."

"She is an acquaintance of mine," Shinichi remarks casually. "I would never have expected her to work as his secretary. Do you know where and how they met each other?"

"Seiya never talked to me about it," Chiba says, studying Shinichi with interest as if he, too, has just recognized Shinichi's face. "I only heard from Rei that Shiho began to work as Seiya's secretary when they came to Venice together about three, almost four years ago. But that's something you shouldn't ask me but him and Shiho."

In answer to Shinichi's question whether he knows about a very interesting edition of the Sherlock Holmes novels and a Sherlock Holmes painting in Tenoh's dressing room, Chiba replies that he has never entered Haruka's dressing room before her death and doesn't know that she liked Sherlock Holmes. The first time he saw the painting was tonight, and he neither had the time nor the nerve to look at it closely. His answer sounds truthful; and when Shinichi asks him for his contact address and phone number while handing him a notebook and a pen, Chiba writes down everything in a florid yet very readable handwriting, which does not in the least resemble any of the handwritings Shinichi has seen.

x.

"I wonder how much he has told us about the things he knows," Carrara remarks after Chiba has left in search of Kino Makoto, who has yet to return from the ladies' room. "When it comes to his friends, he would lie without hesitation. He seems loyal and generous, the only man who is on Signor Seiya Kou's side... There is such a regal air about him, too, don't you think? If he were an actor, he would be cast as a prince or even a young king."

"I would cast him as a young version of King Arthur," Shinichi replies with a smile, "if Seiya Kou is cast as Lancelot."

"What do you want to imply with that?" Carrara asks, staring at Shinichi in surprise.

"But haven't you noticed it? Chiba revealed too much of himself because he is not accustomed to lying. One of the women whom Seiya Kou befriended and whom the journalists labeled as his lover was most probably Chiba's beloved wife."

x.


	5. Part One: First, before the talk...

 

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**First, before the talk...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx_ )

x.

First, before the talk turned to Seiya's love stories, Chiba unthinkingly included Seiya in his wife's "closely knit circle of friends," Shinichi explains to Carrara, who still has reservations about the rumours involving Chiba's wife. Second, Chiba remarked that the rumours caused trouble for Seiya and the girls he befriended but immediately contradicted himself by claiming that Seiya never befriended any girls when Carrara showed interest in the matter. From Chiba's behaviour, Shinichi infers that Chiba didn't want to dwell on the topic because Chiba's girlfriend or fiancée had been labelled as Seiya's lover in the gossip columns at the time Seiya was a teen idol. It is also reasonable to assume that the same girl is now Chiba's wife and that the friendship between Seiya and her must have been very strong to last throughout the scandal and the fact that she is now married to Chiba and living in Tokyo while Seiya is either in Venice or traveling around.

But was it really only a close friendship which survived through all the ugly rumours? Despite his lack of interest in Seiya before hearing the singer's name attached to Ai's, Shinichi can recall so many lurid headlines he has involuntarily picked up about Seiya's countless affairs to think that, at least in this case, the saying applies that where there's smoke there's fire. Furthermore, it is hard for Shinichi to believe that Seiya—despite his scandals and his unexplainable popularity—is supposed to be "rather innocent", with which Chiba meant that Seiya was blissfully oblivious to his disastrous influence on women.

"Of course she could also have been an ex-girlfriend of Chiba's who also belongs to that circle of friends and for whom he cared so much that he is still bitter about the break-up," Shinichi adds. "That's very unlikely, though. I'm sure it was his wife. It would explain his fear when he noticed that you were interested in the girls Seiya befriended, especially if Seiya didn't befriend any girls apart from her friends and her. Chiba is the protective type, and he seems to love his wife very much. He was afraid you might get the idea to dig out the old scandal."

"I wonder why you think he loves her very much," Carrara remarks. "Married couples often give each other a call out of habit. It doesn't say much about their real feelings for each other except that their marriage is fairly good."

"I think he loves her," Shinichi insists without going into detail. Triggered by Carrara's little remark, an insignificant little memory of the time before Pandora's Box has come flooding back to him, overwhelming him with the peculiar and sudden pang of regret he always feels whenever he remembers it, a curious sensation whose nature he cannot grasp and whose impact on him he—although he has often pondered over it—cannot explain.

x.

It was a beautiful starry night with a perfect crescent in the sky, looking so gorgeous, lifeless, and artificial as if it belonged to the set of an old Hollywood movie, an impression strengthened by the presence of a camera and three stage lighting instruments on the lawn, the yellow candle lantern bags on the white-clothed tables, and the colourful paper lanterns in the trees. Although it was late October, the air had not yet acquired its autumnal chill, and the breeze was still so gentle and warm that it almost drifted past one unnoticed. In the wings of the open air stage, the musicians had just begun to tune their instruments while Shiratori-sensei—the former Kobayashi-sensei—was bustling between the tables to distribute the sealed envelopes with the words and phrases which were to be acted out by the players. Shinichi—or rather Edogawa Conan—and Haibara Ai were standing slightly apart from the others, cooped up in the small space between the velvet curtain and the old wooden stairs leading to the stage, waiting.

"How did you deduce that the culprit still loved his wife and wanted to win her back after taking revenge on the man who stole her away from him?" she asked him with interest, referring to his latest culprit, who had been taken to the police station in handcuffs half an hour ago. "Just because he spent a few minutes on the phone with her didn't mean that he still loved her. Married couples often give each other a call out of habit. Maybe he hates her, which would be more natural since she was unfaithful to him."

"He called her in the interval between two acts of a play to chat about completely irrelevant things although he could have spent the time talking with his colleagues who were present," he replied. "And he isn't the socially awkward type that pretends to be occupied to escape a conversation with other people. Hence I deduced that he either did it to get an alibi or just wanted to hear her voice. Since he didn't need an alibi for that time and because his colleagues would have provided him with a much better alibi than she could have done, it must have been the latter case. Also, I think he didn't blame her for her betrayal and didn't blame himself either, which is why his rival received all of his pent-up anger although, in my opinion, it takes two to tango."

"Or three, in this case," she yawned, leaning slightly against the red curtain next to her. "He is such a crashing bore! Two weeks into a marriage with him and I'd consider either murder or suicide. No woman should be forced to spend her life with a man like him."

"You only think that because he is not your type," he smiled. "But he must have been her type once because no one actually forced her to marry him. After noticing that she didn't love him anymore, she should have asked him for a divorce instead of hurting all of them by indulging in an affair."

"Maybe she felt guilty and couldn't bring herself to tell him that it was over," she suggested, her eyes fixing his inquiringly. "Would it be easy for you to tell the woman you've been with for years that you're in love with another and want to be free?"

"Yes," he replied without hesitation. "You either love someone or you don't. If you do, you should do everything possible to make it work. If you don't and would rather be with another person instead, just cut the ties at once instead of making everyone's life miserable."

"Well, perhaps it should have been as simple as that," she sighed, absently toying with the white-gold pendant around her neck, moving it to and fro along the chain. "But there are people who prefer keeping up the charade."

"It suits you," he said in an attempt to be amiable, indicating the small cage-shaped pendant, whose intricate romantic pattern would go well with a Gothic Lolita dress, in his opinion. When he gave it to her and she asked him with mistrust why he bought her a cage, he had told her it was to remind her that she was free, whereupon she only raised her brow and told him that it was just like him to be so silly.

"Are you flattering me or flattering yourself?" she was smirking at him, her finger tapping lightly at the pendant as if she were counting a beat. Much too long for a little girl like her, the chain went down to her breast so that the cage was now hanging like the sword of Damocles directly over the place where her heart was, dangling over it menacingly.

He only glared at her in response and then turned his attention to the tables on the lawn while she contemplated him with a faint smile, somehow managing to look resigned, amused, and mocking at the same time.

"You simply grabbed it without really looking at it, right? Your last-minute birthday presents are always a tad too expensive and totally uncalled for. That's your guilty conscience, I suppose. Don't ever dare to give me something like this again. Just admit that you didn't have time to search for a present."

"No one is forcing you to wear it if you don't want to," he remarked. "It looks to me like you're rather fond of it, though."

"I like it," she shrugged. "I only don't like the fact that I got it from you. Let me guess, you had gone to the jeweller's for a totally different reason. Were you searching for something to give your girlfriend at the detective agency?"

"Yes," he replied without going into detail. Actually, he had stumbled over the pendant first and decided to get it for Ai on her fake-birthday, a date she arbitrarily chose to appease the Detective Boys, who wanted to celebrate her birthday with her—before he got the idea to buy a ring for Ran as well. But he would rather not talk about this topic because, in his eagerness to prevent the robbery which occurred on the other side of the street just when the jeweller handed him the red box with the necklace in it, he had hastily thrown the money he was holding in his hand on the counter, pocketed his new purchase without waiting for the change, and completely forgotten about the ring.

In the wings, the musicians had begun to play a sad little waltz; and he began to hum the tune, trying to remember whether he had heard it before.

"Please don't," she sighed. "You know your singing can kill, and I really don't want you to come across another corpse tonight, especially not when that corpse is mine."

"Thank you very much, I love you, too," he replied ironically, slightly hurt by the expression of genuine horror on her face. "I think I've already heard the melody they are playing somewhere. I just can't remember it."

"Charade," she said, accepting the envelope Shiratori-sensei just handed her with a well-faked childish smile, blushing coyly when Shiratori-sensei wished the two of them good luck.

"Your acting skills are getting even better with time. Maybe you should make a living from it," he suggested after Shiratori-sensei had gone.

"Charade," she repeated nonchalantly, the childish expression and the blush on her face completely wiped out as if it had never been there. "That's the name of the song. They chose it just because of the title, I think."

"It certainly seems so because it really doesn't fit the atmosphere here," he remarked, taking the envelope out of her hand. "Let's see what phrase we got, shall we?"

"I don't think she is happy about you acting out the words with me instead of her," she observed, indicating Ayumi-chan, who was waiting with Mitsuhiko and Genta at a table for their envelope. "Why didn't you want the two of us to split up so that there is always one of us in the group that acts out the phrase and the other in the group that guesses the meaning? You even prevented her from joining our group."

"I don't want the three of them to rely on us forever. If we had split up, this charade would have been a game between the two of us. This way, we two are actually playing with them for once instead of spoon-feeding them. Anyway, this will be a tougher nut to crack than I expected." He frowned at the card, wondering whether it was Suzuki Sonoko instead of Shiratori-sensei who had come up with the phrase on it. "It shouldn't be too hard to act out 'star' and 'cross.' But how in the world, without inappropriate behaviour, are we going to act out the last word?"

She threw a glance over his shoulder, looking slightly taken aback by the English phrase, before she gazed at him thoughtfully and shrugged, apparently not at all impressed by the difficulty of the task.

"Come on," she said with a hint of amusement in her eyes, "nothing is easier to act out than that."

x.

"Perhaps you're right, and he loves her," Carrara remarks. "But then it's rather interesting, isn't it? Signor Mamoru Chiba actually provided an alibi for his one-time rival when I told him that he might be the only alibi for the people with access to the backstage area tonight. He could have pretended that he didn't see Signor Seiya Kou at all because he was distracted. One could also have expected him to jump at the chance to fuel the rumours about Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Shiho Miyano in order to distract us from his wife. Instead, he handled the matter of their love affair with the same caution as that of his own marriage and tried to convince us that those two are only friends. In all aspects, he behaved like a real gentleman."

"He is a real gentleman. But why should he be so ridiculously discreet when it comes to the steady relationship of someone whose public image is that of an infamous Casanova? Chiba did seem relieved when he noticed that you were only interested in Shiho Miyano, and maybe he actually told us the truth and she is only Seiya Kou's secretary," Shinichi counters, dismissing the possibility that Chiba has lied about their relationship out of hand. Apart from the fact that Chiba sounded honest when he told them about Ai, there is no reason for Chiba to lie about Seiya and Ai's relationship after admitting that they often go out together and share an apartment. And as much as their odd friendship stupefies Shinichi, the alternative theory that Ai is really cohabiting with the notorious playboy while trying to hide their love affair seems even more absurd to him.

"Why would a singer share his apartment with his secretary and even spend so much of his free time with her?" Carrara shoots him an incredulous look. "Sitting with her in various cafés is one thing. Going to the cinema with her and even taking her with him to his dressing room is another. I don't think Signor Moretti made it up because it was backed up by Signor Gentile and even Signor Chiba as well. Living with her in the same apartment and going out with her while trying to hide her from the public... There is no reason why Signor Seiya Kou should do that if they aren't a couple, especially after having taken great pains to hide his apartment from his fans. He is simply risking too much for a secretary and 'good company.' Considering his reputation, anybody with a brain could have thought of the rumours which would fly around if they're seen entering an apartment together with their arms linked."

That, Shinichi ponders, might exactly be Seiya's intention. If Chiba and Carrara's colleague are right and Kou Seiya is not a flashy womanizer like the journalists' depiction of him, the singer might have used Ai to keep a safe distance between him and his fanatical fans. The only thing which surprises Shinichi is why Ai, who is anything but dense, would let the selfish idiot put herself into such a precarious position.

"In my opinion, he is so hopelessly in love with her that he doesn't care about the consequences," Carrara continues. "That would agree with his impulsive character. Anyway, we're going to see the pair soon. I only hope Signor Mamoru Chiba can convince Signora Makoto Kino to come to us on her own so that we don't have to visit the ladies' room or question Signora Hino first... Ah, there she is."

Kino Makoto, the woman Chiba has just brought to them, is a tall, curvy, and quite handsome brunette with large forest-green eyes. While she is dressed up to the nines in her long green velvet dress with matching rose stone jewellery, her wavy chestnut hair—secured with a beautiful emerald hair tie in a high ponytail on top of her head—are in a state of slight disarray. Judging from her swollen eyes, it is obvious even to the inattentive observer that she must have been crying for quite a while.

"I'll go upstairs to see whether Rei is all right," Chiba excuses himself and swiftly departs again while Kino greets both Carrara and Shinichi with a solemn nod before she expresses the wish to talk to them in the backstage café.

"I really need a drink now," she explains in Italian, pointing at the café with her index finger like a child. Her voice is warm, resonant, and strong in contrast to her vulnerable and slightly dreamy gaze.

She can't tell them much about the happenings of tonight, Kino declares after taking an opened bottle of sherry out of the fridge, which she empties into three glasses, offering Carrara and Shinichi each a glass without considering that Carrara is not allowed to accept the drink while he is on duty. Haruka (who was Kino's idea of how a human being should be!) had given her, Mamoru, Seiya, and Seiya's secretary Shiho free tickets for tonight's opera—she begins after tossing off her glass of sherry and asking them to keep everything she tells them confidential. She had come alone through the main entrance of La Fenice, where she met Gentile, who escorted her to the backstage area to see Haruka and Rei. After giving Rei and Haruka each a bouquet of scarlet lilies and wishing them luck, she spent the time before the first act with Mamoru in the foyer while Haruka and Rei were busy preparing themselves for the concert.

"I heard Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Shiho Miyano didn't attend the first act of the opera despite having free tickets," Carrara remarks.

It is true that they didn't, which startled Kino, so she decided to visit Shiho and Seiya in Seiya's dressing room during the first interval. Seiya was nowhere to be seen. But Shiho told her that she was suffering from a severe migraine and that Seiya had gone out to get her painkillers.

"How come you knew that you would find them in his dressing room?" Carrara asks.

Kino blinks at him in surprise.

"Where else should they have been? Oh, you mean they could have stayed in the café. But Rei told me that Seiya got the key for his dressing room on Wednesday—because of The Phantom of the Opera this weekend, you know—and that he immediately tried to make it cozy, even robbing Haruka of a sofa to put it in there. Luckily, Haruka didn't mind since she didn't need a sofa in her dressing room, anyway. I expected that he'd rather stay in his dressing room with Shiho than sitting in the café where everyone could show up without warning and disturb them. Just like Haruka, Seiya loves his privacy."

"So he was away during the first act and the first interval in search for painkillers. And what did you and your friends do then? I'm sorry for being intrusive, but these are just routine questions."

Haruka, Rei, Shiho, Mamoru, and she were in the backstage café during the first interval before they went their separate ways, Kino proceeds with her story. She left with Mamoru for the bar where they drank champagne and talked about Usagi, Mamoru's wife, who is also one of her best friends. Rei returned to her dressing room to study her scores as she always did during an interval while Shiho and Haruka stayed in the café together. Those two were good friends—Shiho was actually one of the few people Haruka treated as an equal—and liked to talk with each other in private.

Shiho, whose headaches disappeared after the first interval, attended the second act of the opera. Seiya had still not returned, which was a pity because Rei was magnificent during the second act, probably even better than she was during the first. Seiya's absence must have infuriated her because he has been her celebrity crush since their high school days and she has wanted to make an impression on him with this opera. But, amazing as she is, she kept complete control over her voice and didn't show it. Whenever she goes on stage, Rei—who is usually hot-headed and impatient—transforms into a totally different person.

"You must know she has studied very hard for the role, which is extremely tough because the soprano has to sing the whole opera alone for the whole evening. There aren't many singers in the world who survive through such a trial without ruining their voices. I'm sure it hurt her very much that Seiya didn't listen to even one minute of it. I'm only telling you that because I don't want you to judge her by her behaviour tonight. Rei is a diamond in the rough. There is no one more loyal than her in the world... But whenever she is angry or disappointed, her temper gets the better of her, and then she can be very nasty even towards us."

When Kino arrived in the backstage café in the second interval to have another cup of tea with Rei, she learned from Rei that Haruka had immediately retired to her dressing room after leaving the stage, claiming that she was exhausted and wanted to be left alone. Some time after Rei left for her own dressing room, Kino was trying to reach a friend on the phone when Haruka came, asked Kino to bring her a cup of chilled water and—out of consideration for Kino, who usually doesn't like to be disturbed during her phone calls—immediately returned to her dressing room again. Putting a bottle of water into the fridge, Kino noticed that there was already another bottle in it. Hence she postponed her call, grabbed the bottle in the fridge and a cup, walked to Haruka's dressing room, and knocked at the door. Haruka stepped out of her room, accepted the cup from Kino, poured herself water into the cup, returned the half-empty bottle to Kino and—complaining of a headache—told Kino she wanted to be left alone again to prepare herself for the last act of the opera.

What happened to the half-empty bottle, Carrara asks, apparently annoyed about the fact that he hasn't heard anything about it from the sergeants.

"I drank the rest of the water and threw the empty bottle away," Kino shrugs.

Why did she bring Tenoh a cup instead of a glass, Shinichi asks. One usually doesn't drink water from a china cup.

She didn't think much about it, Kino replies. She had simply grabbed a china cup because there was no clean glass left. Stealing a glance at the sink, Shinichi realizes that Kino must have done the dishes during her phone call.

"Did Tenoh always drink mineral water in the intervals?"

"I think so," Kino blinks at him in genuine bemusement, apparently puzzled by his odd questions. "Why do you want to know?"

"Only out of curiosity."

"Can you tell us what time it was?" Carrara asks.

Kino shakes her head.

"I didn't pay attention to it. I usually don't wear a watch and only look at my phone or set a timer when I really need to keep track of time. But you can ask Seiya if you like. I saw him heading for the exit when Haruka opened the door to the café and asked me for the water."

Turning his attention to the bar counter, Shinichi throws a glance at the old clock, whose face is clearly visible to anyone standing at the bar or sitting at the only table of the café where the three of them are sitting now. Automatically comparing the time on it with the time on his own watch, he assures himself that it is keeping good time.

"So Signor Seiya Kou returned some time during the second act just to go out again in the second interval?" Carrara asks.

"Yes. I don't know why he did it. But it's just like him to do unexplainable and crazy things, so I didn't even think of asking him. Perhaps he went home to get Shiho stronger painkillers because her headaches had returned again."

"He seems to care about her very much," Carrara observes.

"Yes, he does," Kino responds seriously, looking suddenly distant.

"Where were the others during that time?" Shinichi asks.

Rei was in her dressing room, studying her scores as always while Shiho was in Seiya's dressing room to nap on the sofa. Mamoru had told Kino that he wanted to chat with Usagi and was probably in the foyer or in the concert hall. She herself had spent the whole time on the phone talking to her friend when Signor Gentile suddenly appeared and tried to start a conversation with her. Even though she didn't have anything against the man, he got on her nerves with his inability to keep his mouth shut, and she was glad when he finally left her alone. After a while, Seiya came and had a drink with her, asking her about Rei's singing and telling her how sorry he was for missing the first two acts of the opera before he returned to his dressing room.

"Please tell us what time it was," Shinichi urges. "You can check the time your call ended on your mobile phone."

"But Seiya came in the middle of my phone call. And since he knows Minako as well, we both talked with her on the phone over a glass of sherry. Minako didn't mind because she likes to flirt with him a bit, an old habit she has kept from our school days together. But now I remember it was about a quarter to twenty past eight because Seiya, who wanted to watch the third act of the opera, complained to me about Haruka's habit to let the audience wait for fifteen minutes to half an hour. Still, we weren't really impatient because we knew Rei would come and call us before the third act started."

"Did you look at the clock or did you only guess the time?" Shinichi asks.

"I looked at the clock, of course. It was one or two... or three... minutes past a quarter past eight, I think."

"You said you were talking to Minako. Did you mean Minako Aino, the actress?"

Kino nods with a smile. "She'll be the Meg Giri in The Phantom of the Opera this weekend. Seiya will be the Phantom and Rei Christine Daaé. It's such an awesome cast. You should really watch the musical if you get the chance."

"I doubt I'll be able to get a ticket," Carrara sighs in resignation.

Kino gives him a sympathetic look.

"These crazy women," she snorts in annoyance. "Seiya's fans are driving all of us insane, and he still hasn't learned how to deal with them after all these years. Haruka, on the other hand, always knew exactly how to attract girls and how to get rid of them."

"Did you all go to Infinity together?" Shinichi asks her.

Kino stares at him as if he were a man from Mars.

"Oh God, no," she exclaims with a laugh. "Infinity was a school for prodigies, and an extremely exclusive one to boot. No, I went to a normal school with Usagi and Minako. Rei went to a Catholic school but spent all of her free time with us. I don't know where Mamoru went to school since he was already at university when Rei and he started dating and she introduced him to us. Only Haruka went to Infinity. She was a real genius."

"Signora Rei Hino and Signor Mamoru Chiba were once a couple?" Carrara asks in surprise.

Kino blushes.

"Yes, but their relationship was brief and not at all serious. Rei immediately broke up with him when she noticed that Usagi and he had fallen in love with each other. I told you she is the most loyal friend in the world." Kino gives a warm smile. "Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think she really suffered when she gave up Mamoru for Usagi. Usagi has always been much more important to her than Mamoru ever was. Rei only had a small crush on him because he was so good-looking and mature in contrast to all her admirers. It was kind of stupid of me to mention it to you."

"Did Seiya Kou go to Infinity, too?" Shinichi asks.

"No, he came to our school when he was already a teen idol. Seiya, Usagi, Minako, and I were actually classmates. I can't imagine Seiya would have survived for even one semester at Infinity. He was bright but just as lazy as Minako when it came to studying and homework, and the girls at school were always throwing themselves at him. It's a miracle he still got so good grades."

In reply to Shinichi's questions regarding the Sherlock Holmes novels and the painting, Kino claims that she didn't know about Haruka's interest in Sherlock Holmes and has never seen any Sherlock Holmes painting in Haruka's dressing room because she has never been there. Although Haruka was genuinely friendly and extremely charming, she was not the type of person one dares to disturb without being invited. When Carrara remarks that "Signor Seiya Kou" has dared to rob Haruka of her sofa, according to Kino's own statement, Kino only sighs: "Well, you know, Seiya is Seiya," smiling indulgently as if she were talking about a lunatic or a child, and they leave it at that.

x.

Scribbling down her address and phone number into Shinichi's notebook in a round and rather feminine handwriting, Kino Makoto tells Carrara casually that she is twenty-five years old—a year younger than Haruka—and the proud owner of a small flower shop in San Marco where she also sells handmade chocolate and cakes for special occasions. She had come to Venice right after finishing school, following her dream to make a living here. Haruka and Michiru, Haruka's life partner, visited her during an Italy trip and immediately fell in love with the city because its atmosphere matched Michiru's paintings. Michiru even founded a small private academy for music, dance, and fine arts, whose ballet classes are very popular. Minako soon moved to Venice as well, partly because she was interested in Michiru's academy and partly because she had managed to snatch a few important roles for the musicals at La Fenice.

"Last year it was even Belle in Beauty and the Beast, a main role," Kino says with motherly pride. "Rei joined us last year after finishing her musical studies—although I don't know whether she came here because of Seiya or because of Minako and me."

"And Seiya Kou and Shiho Miyano?" Shinichi asks. "Did they come here together?"

About four years ago, Seiya came to Venice and bought the apartment from Michiru, Kino says. During a visit at her flower shop—Seiya is her best customer when it comes to thornless, long-stemmed red roses—he told Kino that he was thoroughly sick of the unwelcome publicity and wanted to hide somewhere where no one would expect to find a social butterfly like him. When Kino and Aino visited his apartment for the first time, he introduced Shiho to them, bragging that he had finally found a brilliant solution to the dreaded paperwork by letting his super-efficient secretary take care of it for him.

"So Signor Seiya Kou is actually living in Signora Michiru Kaioh's apartment?" Carrara asks in surprise. He, too, obviously knows the family name of Tenoh Haruka's life partner even without Kino telling him. Anyone who knows Tenoh Haruka also knows Kaioh Michiru, who is famous in her own right, and Shinichi can remember marvelling at Kaioh's uncanny beauty, which threw even him off balance when he first saw a photo of her and Tenoh in Ran's magazine.

"Well, no. Technically, he owns it since he bought it but, officially, it still belongs to her. He didn't even change the nameplates, you know, saying that it's a great way to hide from his fans. People who don't know them would think Seiya and Shiho were Haruka and Michiru, and Seiya is inordinately proud of his little prank. I'm only telling you this so you know what a kid he is and because you promised me that everything within these walls are strictly confidential."

"And Signora Haruka Tenoh and Signora Michiru Kaioh had to move into another apartment because of him?" Carrara asks.

"They had two apartments," Kino shrugs. "Seiya talked Michiru out of her apartment in Cannaregio because it's peaceful and residential, the perfect place to live a perfectly normal life."

Some day, all of her friends will be in Venice, Kino smiles, emptying her second glass of sherry—the one she poured for Carrara—in one go. For a woman who has drunk champagne and at least three glasses of sherry during the same evening, she is amazingly sober, Shinichi acknowledges in admiration while Kino declares that she will make sure to bribe everyone with cakes and flowers and, with the help of her friends, return the decaying city its old glory.

"I know it's improbable," she sighs with sad smile. "But one should never lose hope, Haruka once told me." Leaning back in her chair, she grins at Carrara and Shinichi with a mournful expression in her redden eyes. "I'm your number one suspect because I brought her the cup of water, aren't I? But I can assure you that Haruka wasn't murdered, neither by me nor by anyone else, because she was loved by everyone."

"Everyone?" Carrara echoes skeptically.

"Yes," Kino nods, moving her arms in a vague, all-encompassing motion, which seems to embrace the whole backstage area. "She is... was... such a nice and inspirational person. We all admired and loved her very much."

"Signor Seiya Kou, too?" Carrara asks.

"We all love him very much, too," Kino replies, intentionally misunderstanding his question. "But it's something entirely different. He is too much of a star and a maverick. You can't help being dazzled by his looks and his voice, and all the girls are swooning over him. But somehow we never really talk." Then, as if she weren't satisfied with her explanation, she continues to elaborate: "Don't get me wrong. He is actually a great guy. I once had a celebrity crush on him, too. But he is almost always deliriously happy with himself as if he were high on drugs. Spending time with him is wonderful because whatever troubles you have seem to miraculously disappear in his presence as if they had never existed. However, it's impossible for me to talk to a guy like him about personal problems, and I do feel the need to talk about problems once in a while. Haruka was mature, intelligent, and thoughtful. I could always turn to her for advice."

"I heard there have been personal problems between Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Haruka Tenoh because of Signora Shiho Miyano?" Carrara asks.

No, one can't call them "problems," Kino protests. Haruka, though sometimes brisk in manner, had a heart of gold. She was very protective of her friends, one of whom was Seiya himself, just like Shiho. However, one of Haruka's few vices was her lack of respect when it came to other people's privacy, and Seiya is a free spirit who can't stand being ordered around.

"You mean Signora Tenoh told Signor Kou how to behave towards his girlfriend?" Carrara asks, confused.

She didn't mean to say that, Kino answers evasively, fidgeting with her empty glasses. Haruka liked to offer sound advice to her friends while Seiya, in contrast to the others, disregarded her well-meant advice all the time. It seemed Haruka also didn't like the fact that Seiya is sharing his apartment with Shiho, who is not only his secretary but also his friend, fueling the wild rumours about them having a secret love affair by shamelessly flirting with her in public. Nevertheless, Shiho was only one of the many topics on which Seiya and Haruka disagreed. They might have been polar opposites, but they weren't enemies.

"That's strange," Carrara remarks, "I heard that their personalities clashed because they were so alike?"

Oh, in some aspects, they were alike, Kino smiles. But it's true that those similarities only fueled their arguments. They were both individualists, liked to lead, liked to win, and "had the same taste, you know... the same hobbies, the same interests, even liked the same type of woman."

"So they were rivals? I remember the rumour that Signor Seiya Kou was once interested in Signora Michiru Kaioh, too, when they still went to school. I remember the press caused a lot of trouble for her."

Oh no, not Michiru. Kino vehemently protests. She heard they once flirted with each other a bit although it was only a prank to aggravate Haruka. Michiru always loved to make Haruka jealous to pay her back for her incessant flirting, and Seiya was the ideal tool to ruffle Haruka's feathers. The press somehow got wind of it and the little incident was blown out of all proportion. The one Seiya was in love with was actually someone else. Back then he was completely out of his mind for a few days, even broke down at the end of a concert, which was especially disturbing because it was so unlike him. She wonders if he has ever really got over h—

"And who was that girl?" Carrara asks curiously, cutting her off in the middle of her sentence, much to Shinichi's annoyance.

As if she just realized that she has talked too much about things she shouldn't, Kino clams up, flushing with anger.

"I don't know her," she answers with a nervous laugh. "I only heard about it from a friend. But it isn't important now, is it? I really don't want to gossip about Seiya, especially since rumours about him spread like wildfire. The only thing which matters is the fact that Haruka wasn't murdered, and Seiya would be the last person on earth to murder anybody. Those who want him to be a murderer are probably only envious of his success and his popularity."

"Why do you think that he would be the last person to murder anybody?" Shinichi asks.

"Because he loves life so much," Kino says as a matter-of-fact. "Why should he want to take it away from anybody?"

A fine woman, Shinichi thinks, not shrewd at all and much too easy to deceive but loyal and trustworthy. One can never count anybody out, but he would say that the last person who can murder someone else is her.

x.

* * *

 

**Signora Tenoh's bag...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx)_

x.

"Signora Tenoh's bag was found behind the door next to the bar... Can you remember when she left it here on the floor?" Carrara asks Kino Makoto at the end of the interrogation, a question Shinichi would have asked her if Carrara had forgotten.

She sighs, looking tired and listless all of a sudden, a bit bored and totally out of place in her long velvet gown.

"I can't remember that it was here. But I probably didn't notice it because it didn't really interest me. Why do you ask?"

"It seems odd that she would leave it here instead of keeping it in her dressing room," Carrara replies, evading her question.

"She knew she could trust all the people here," Kino shrugs. "We would never steal anything from her."

"Do you know where she kept her keys tonight?" Shinichi asks. While waiting in the corridor with Gentile, he could observe that the only things Carrara found in the pockets of Tenoh's slacks were a lavender silk handkerchief with her initials and her mobile phone, which is why it struck him as unusual that—apart from the key to the dressing room, which was in the pocket of her raincoat on the peg behind the door—there weren't any keys in her dressing room and in her bag at all.

"I don't know," Kino blinks at him, confused. "Didn't she have any keys in her pockets? I remember she hated carrying unnecessary stuff around, though. Maybe she didn't take them with her because Michiru is home."

"But it's strange that Kaioh didn't attend the world premiere of Tenoh's opera, isn't it?" Shinichi muses. "One would expect her to be more interested in the opera since the two of them are living together."

In answer to his indirect question, Kino only murmurs that Michiru doesn't have much free time these days. While she pretends to busy herself with beholding her well-manicured nails, Carrara gives Shinichi a knowing look conveying that he, too, is imagining dramatic scenes of a serious lover's quarrel. However, that theory doesn't seem very plausible, as it doesn't really explain why Tenoh didn't have a key in any of her pockets or in her bag. If Kaioh and Tenoh had really quarrelled with each other, it would have been more natural for Tenoh to take the keys with her so that she wouldn't have to depend on Kaioh to open the door for her.

Regarding the discovery of Tenoh's body, Kino can only tell them that she has just finished doing the dishes in the café and was wiping the bar when Seiya returned and informed her that Mamoru was going to replace Haruka during the third act. The moment Kino saw Rei's face, she knew that Haruka was no longer alive, especially when Rei—indicating Gentile who was ranting about Haruka's "unfortunate sickness"—told Kino to pull herself together and prevented her from entering Haruka's dressing room. Seiya must have guessed the truth as well because he said he would like to return to Shiho, who was still asleep, to explain everything to her when she woke up. Kino decided to watch the third act of the opera although she was still in a state of shock.

"I'm sure Signora Tenoh would have appreciated it," Carrara says soothingly.

Kino gives a small chuckle, and the sad and dreamy expression in her eyes instantly sobers, changing her outward appearance from romantic to down-to-earth and rational.

"Haruka?" She shakes her head. "Even if she had been alive, Haruka wouldn't have cared a bit! She wasn't sentimental when it came to such things. I did it for Rei, of course. Can you imagine how it must have been like, having to sing even though a friend has just died?"

x.

It is already five to eleven p.m. when Carrara and Shinichi step out of the backstage café, leaving Kino Makoto, who has decided to stay there and wait for Hino Rei while informing her best friends in Venice and Tokyo about Tenoh's death. Cooperative as she is, she has also given Shinichi Aino Minako's address and telephone number without apparent hesitation.

"Maybe we'll need her witness account for Seiya's alibi," Shinichi has lied to Kino before he offered her one of his mobile phones (a very handy invention of the Professor, which he always reserves for his witnesses and suspects), as the battery of Kino's phone needs to be recharged. In response to his gesture, Kino has given him such a warm smile that he almost felt a twinge of guilt for misusing her trust.

"Her story about the water sounds fishy, doesn't it?" Carrara says in a low voice when they are walking together through the deserted corridor. "Why should Signora Tenoh ask her for the water if she could have got it on her own?"

"I don't think so. That part of her story did ring true to me, especially since Tenoh was apparently accustomed to ordering other people around. It's Seiya Kou whose behaviour doesn't make sense at all."

"Well, his excuse for missing the opera was implausible, too. I bet it wasn't the painkillers which kept him from attending the opera. It's a credible excuse the first time around but not the second time unless he's really the affectionate idiot they want him to be."

Even if the story with the painkillers were true, Seiya's behaviour still wouldn't make sense, Shinichi silently agrees. If Moretti and Gentile are right (and until now Shinichi doesn't have a reason to assume that they are conspiring against Seiya despite their obvious antipathy towards him), the singer must have returned to the opera house after the second act just to go out again during the second interval, departing through the exit after he came back through the main entrance, meaning that he actually walked through the foyer, passed the hall, climbed on the stage to the backstage area and—for an unknown reason—went out again for a second time while Chiba Mamoru, who had been standing at the main entrance and in the foyer during the second break, either didn't see Seiya, pretended not to see Seiya, or hid the fact that he did see Seiya when Seiya returned to the opera house for the first time.

"The version of the portiere sounds more believable to me," Carrara continues. "Maybe Signor Seiya Kou really wanted to intercept Signora Haruka Tenoh's letter to his agent, from whom he had hidden his love affair. I don't know how he planned to do it. But from all the things I've heard about him by now, he seems very energetic and impulsive to me. It would be in character for him to run out of the opera house to take a chance instead of sitting in the hall, watching the opera, and twiddling his thumbs."

Very unlikely, Shinichi thinks without openly disagreeing with Carrara for fear of being labelled as the jealous ex-lover who can't accept the thought that his ex-girlfriend is now in a happy relationship with someone else. Carrara's theory doesn't answer the question why Seiya went out twice and why he stayed in his dressing room during the first act and went out during the first interval like Gentile and Moretti said instead of going out immediately after quarrelling with Tenoh Haruka. However, the thing which really unsettles Shinichi is not Seiya's odd behaviour but Ai's. Kino obviously believes that they are a couple although—probably out of loyalty to Seiya—she tried to hide their relationship from Carrara and Shinichi by telling them that they are only friends. Naturally sincere and frank, Kino is not a particularly good liar. Winding back to the beginning of the second interval, Shinichi frowns at the recollection of Ai strolling in the direction of the door, looking about herself as if she were searching for someone in the hall...

Even if Kou Seiya were really her boyfriend—which is highly improbable considering their differences—it wouldn't be like Ai to forget APAH at home or to send someone else to fetch it, Shinichi thinks. Her behaviour tonight seems extremely puzzling to him. If she really forgot APAH at home—which is just as improbable as her alleged romance with the international playboy!—the Ai he knew would have fetched the painkillers herself or, if she couldn't drive the boat, go with Seiya to fetch them, not only because she was usually self-reliant and preferred to solve such minor problems on her own but also because she couldn't stand the thought of other people rummaging through her belongings.

While Shinichi is startled by the fact that Ai didn't go home to fetch her painkillers, the fact that she actually attended the second act of the opera after missing the first seems even more puzzling to him. From personal experience, Shinichi knows that the post-antidote migraine doesn't miraculously disappear without APAH. Vulnerable and emotionally less stable than she pretends to be, Ai has always had a remarkable tolerance to physical pain. However, she doesn't belong to the extraordinarily considerate and obliging people who would hide their feelings of discomfort just to please others, and Shinichi can't quite imagine her to pretend that she was fine and to suffer quietly through the second act of the opera just to please Hino Rei and Tenoh Haruka. It would be more like her to stay in Seiya's dressing room or—and this is even more likely!—to go home instead. Thinking back to the moment when he caught a glimpse of Ai's face at the beginning of the second interval, Shinichi can't remember seeing any sign of pain in it either. The only logical conclusion seems to him that she actually feigned the headaches and misused Seiya's sympathy or infatuation or whatever the singer feels for her to send him home, to keep him out of her way. However, Shinichi can't think of a reason why Ai would do that, especially since she must have known that Hino Rei expected Seiya to watch the opera, a fact which even an inattentive observer like Kino Makoto noticed... Shinichi knows Ai well enough to be sure that she would never stoop to scheming against other women even if she regarded them as rivals. And the alternative theory that she has actually poisoned Tenoh Haruka and sent Seiya away so that he wouldn't see through her plan is even more absurd.

Most probably, Ai didn't forget her painkillers and took them before the second act—assuming she has ever had any headaches at all. But then why did she lie and send Seiya home to fetch her painkillers? Or did she not lie to Seiya but to Kino because she knew Seiya had left the opera house for a completely different reason like Carrara suggested... a reason which would actually support Moretti's assertion that the singer is really Ai's boyfriend and that Tenoh had threatened to inform Seiya's agent about their secret love affair? Still, none of these theories really explain the fact that Ai must have lied about her headaches in the second interval when she met Gentile because she must have taken APAH before the second act—assuming she has ever had any headaches in the first place. Moreover, it doesn't make sense to Shinichi that Seiya would want to live with her and hide their relationship at the same time because there is absolutely no reason why he should do that, especially when he is really as frank as Chiba described.

Ai's headaches could have begun after the second act while she had stayed in the dressing room during the first act for a completely different reason, for example to sound out Seiya about his quarrel with Tenoh. She could even have feigned her headaches in front of Gentile to escape his company and spent the second interval alone in the dressing room to sulk about Seiya's absence. Although that kind of behaviour would actually be just like her, this theory would imply that she does have romantic feelings—requited or unrequited—for the former idol, something Shinichi simply doesn't want to believe.

Going through all the possible scenarios in his mind within a few seconds, Shinichi assures himself that at least he can swear that the Ai he knew would never poison anybody, much less a person like Tenoh Haruka, whose company she apparently enjoyed. But then again, the Ai he knew wouldn't have disappeared from his life to go to Venice with Kou Seiya either, neither as his secretary nor his lover nor—heaven forbid!—both.

Useless theories, hypotheses and speculations with no basis in fact, Shinichi realizes in annoyance. Jumping to conclusions without a scrap of evidence is something he despises and usually doesn't do. As expected, no sooner did Ai walk into his life again than she endangers the clarity of his mind with her infuriatingly unpredictable and contradictory behaviour. Trying to shake himself out of the maddening confusion, Shinichi goes through the happenings of tonight again, mentally arranging the information he has gathered in chronological order just to realize that, absorbed in the mystery surrounding Tenoh's death and Ai's role in it, he has completely forgotten about Ran, who must still be waiting for him.

"Can I talk to a friend for a few minutes before you question Hino Rei?" Shinichi asks Carrara. "She must be waiting for me in the hall or in the foyer."

"Of course," Carrara smiles. "I need to talk with a few of my people as well. But I didn't know that a lady is waiting for you. Is she your girlfriend or a prospective girlfriend? She must be special since you're holidaying in Venice with her."

"A special friend," Shinichi replies for lack of a better phrase which can describe their friendship after the end of their childhood love. "But we aren't a couple."

x.

The magnificent concert hall—almost hurtful to Shinichi's eyes with its excessive embellishments, its golden-orange colour, and its glaring red curtains—is now completely deserted apart from the two sergeants at the right entrance, who are filling commissario Carrara in on their interrogations of the staff and the ushers. In front of the left entrance, Shinichi and Ran are standing—he leaning against the door frame and she with her arm and her head propped against the open door—talking quietly with each other while exchanging curious glances with Carrara and the sergeants across the hall.

Before questioning Gentile, Carrara had already given instructions to call the Questura and get someone who can call the French and Japanese police and Scotland Yard to request information on Tenoh, who was a rather cosmopolitan person and had been raised in France and England before she moved to Japan and Venice, a fact well-known among her fans. Even though he had instructed a sergeant to take the trash from the café to the Questura so that they can inspect the empty water bottle Kino had thrown away, Carrara isn't optimistic enough to expect to find anything of importance, neither in it nor on it. If Signora Makoto Kino had been the culprit—provided Signora Haruka Tenoh had been murdered—Signora Kino most probably got rid of the evidence during the time she was alone in the café. Anyone else could have murdered Signora Tenoh as well, from

a) Signor Mamoru Chiba, who could have done it immediately after chatting with his wife and returning to the hall, to

b) Signora Rei Hino, who had been alone in her dressing room to study her scores, to

c) Signor Luigi Gentile, who discovered Signora Tenoh's body, to

d) Signora Shiho Miyano, that elusive "secretary", who had been alone in Signor Seiya Kou's dressing room, sleeping, to

e) Signor Seiya Kou himself, who had returned through the exit and passed Signora Tenoh's dressing room on his way to the foyer. He could have done it after talking to Signora Makoto Kino. Even the portiere could have done it although he is, without doubt, the last person Carrara would suspect. Now that Carrara is thinking about it... even he would only have needed a few minutes.

Why did Signor Seiya Kou ask Signor Gentile where his secretary was if he had passed the backstage area while she was sleeping in his dressing room? It would have been more natural for him to return to his own dressing room first, where he would have met her. Among all the people in the backstage area, he is the only one with a motive. And yet it is hard to believe that a man who has been described as impulsive and hot-headed by all of his friends and enemies would murder anyone in such a neat and tidy way, with water and an unknown poison which leaves a peaceful smile on the victim's face. Most probably Signora Tenoh died naturally, as strange as it seems...

Even though Shinichi can't really read Carrara's mind, deducing the commissario's train of thought by watching his face and studying his body language is for him as easy as falling off a log. He can do it while simultaneously informing Ran, who is less angry at him than he had feared, of Tenoh's death, conveniently omitting the fact that Seiya is one of the suspects for fear that Ran would mention it to Sonoko.

"Tenoh-sama was such a talented and beautiful person," Ran murmurs. "I can't believe that anybody had the heart to murder him."

"Maybe he wasn't murdered at all," Shinichi remarks. "We still need to wait for the results of the autopsy."

"I wonder how Seiya-sama will take this," Ran muses. "He must be busy preparing for _The Phantom of the Opera_ tomorrow night. It must be hard for him to focus."

"What does Kou have to do with it?" Shinichi asks in surprise, wondering whether she knows that Seiya is in the backstage area and whether she has learned about it by chatting with the usher whom Seiya—according to Chiba's account—talked with during the second interval.

"They were good friends, so I heard. But it's not 'Kou'," Ran corrects him. "It's only 'Seiya-sama' or 'Seiya'."

"Why? Because there were three Kou's in their bands? But the other two aren't in Venice right now, are they?"

"No, that's not it," Ran smiles. "Three Lights reversed their first names and their family names to use as their stage names, written in katakana. If you call Seiya-sama 'Kou', you're calling him by his first name without an honorific since his stage name is 'Seiya Kou', not 'Kou Seiya'."

So that is the reason why everyone calls him 'Seiya', Shinichi realizes, thinking that he should have guessed it sooner. For Seiya's friends, it wouldn't make sense to call him by his surname, which he shares with his band members, and for strangers, "Seiya" would be the family name of his stage name.

"So, since 'kou' can mean 'light', it's a pun and 'Three Lights' are 'the Three Kou's'?" Shinichi asks.

"Yes, isn't it a nice idea of his agent? She is full of brilliant ideas, Sonoko said. It's her, too, who devised the colour schemes of their suits."

"His agent is female?"

"Yes, she's the daughter of the man who discovered Three Lights, Sonoko told me. But he passed away a few years ago and his daughter took over the agency afterwards. Shizuka-sama is said to be very protective of the three of them, especially Seiya-sama... Sonoko said it wouldn't surprise her if Shizuka-sama was in love with him, too. He is such a tease. After the opera, an usher told me she wouldn't wash her right hand and her left arm for the next few weeks just because he had shaken her hand and given her an autograph on her arm..."

Apparently, the incorrigible flirt asked the usher standing at the left entrance—the same in front of which Chiba had been standing while chatting with his wife—for the time at five or six past eight and stayed with her to charm her until eight sixteen. The silly girl was so elated by her unbelievable luck that she had to trumpet it to Ran while Ran was waiting for Shinichi in the foyer after the opera ended.

"Did she mention that he was searching for his secretary?" Shinichi asks.

Ran's eyes widen in surprise.

"How come you know about his secretary, too? No, but she mentioned he had asked the artistic director about his secretary before he talked to her. He also told her that 'Shiho'—that's the name of his secretary—was suffering from headaches and that he couldn't watch the opera because he had gone out to get her painkillers."

"Are you sure she said he talked to the artistic director before talking to her?" Shinichi asks.

"Yes, she said that after he asked her for the time and gave her the autograph, he returned to his dressing room to wake up his secretary. Can you imagine that he is really cohabiting with her? Alessandra, the usher I talked with, told me that a friend of hers knows that they're a couple because she has been stalking him for over a year by now. His secretary and he are always together although she seems to spend a lot of time with Tenoh-sama, too, when Seiya-sama goes to his rehearsals. I wonder what Sonoko will say about this. She has often told me that Seiya-sama is public property and that she is glad he has never had a real girlfriend. All of his fans are like her, consoling themselves with the thought that he is only playing around and would never let anybody tie him down. Maybe that's why he has to hide his girlfriend from them."

"Is she sure that they are a couple?" Shinichi raises his brow. "They could be sharing an apartment in a purely platonic way, couldn't they?"

"Why should they do that if they aren't a couple?" she asks him, puzzled.

"Maybe she's broke and he's helping her out until she can afford an apartment on her own," he suggests. "It's easy to mistake two people for a couple, you know..."

 _It's actually much harder to act out "star" and "cross,"_ Ai had said, pushing her hair behind her ear with the little grin she always wore on her face whenever she felt superior to him. _Seeing a decent-looking pair together, people often automatically assume that they're lovers, perhaps because most people are romantics at heart, the poor fools. Just a few telltale signs of intimacy, a little bit of platonic flirting in a way which looks outrageous to other people although there's actually nothing naughty about it, and our charade will be perfect. Stealing the wallet from the back pocket of the other person's jeans, adjusting their clothes for them, absently stroking their neck while pushing a strand of their hair out of their face or wiping away a speck of dust on the inside of their leg... One can do so many scandalous things even without really touching the other person. Of course all the gestures should be effortless and natural, without any sign of awkwardness as if much more intimate things have already happened between us in private. Since we want to win despite your third-rate acting skills, just try to pretend that this is your life in three or four years and that I'm Ran..._

"How is Seiya as an actor? Have you ever watched anything starring him at Sonoko's?"

"He is an awesome actor, really, just like Taiki-sama and Yaten-sama. Sonoko and I bought these inedible buns once just because Three Lights were eating them in an ad."

"Can you help me a bit with the investigation?" he asks, remembering the problem that he can't allow Ran to run into Ai and that—if he doesn't hurry—Ran might get the idea to ask Seiya for an autograph. "Please go back to the hotel now and look into Tenoh and Seiya on the internet for me. I'll come back later as soon as this is over, tomorrow morning before breakfast at the latest."

"Why can't I stay here with you?" She waves her new smartphone in front of his face. "The battery of my phone is still full. I can google their names while waiting for you."

He doesn't think that's a good idea, he tells her. Carrara, the inspector, is the type that would immediately jump to the conclusion that she is his girlfriend if she sticks around, and an inspector like Carrara certainly won't trust a detective who lets his girlfriend distract him from the crime. Shinichi is sure that Carrara is not a misogynist—actually the complete opposite—but he thinks he has his prejudices...

"All right, I get it. You want to be alone again, don't you? Just come back before breakfast," she sighs and immediately turns to walk in the direction of the cloakroom.

"Wait, it's late," Shinichi remarks, pulling her back by her wrist. "I'll ask the inspector if a sergeant can accompany you."

She sighs again, giving him a tired smile.

"No thanks, it's not far away from here, and I'll knock out any guy who tries to come near me," she playfully growls, raising her fist at an invisible opponent. The heart-shaped sapphire on the ring finger of her right hand momentarily catches the light of the chandeliers above, blinding him with its blue beam. Blinking, he only smiles in reply, pretending not to notice the sad gleam which has stolen into her eyes, and raises his hand to wave her goodbye while she turns and walks away.

"What a pretty and charming girl," Carrara, who has approached him in the meantime, gives him a little nudge. "Her ring is beautiful as well. Must have cost a fortune. Did you give it to her?"

"No," Shinichi shakes his head, thinking that this mystery, too, is one he hasn't solved yet. "She didn't get it from me."

x.

* * *

 

 **A/N:** After rereading my favourite fics by my favourite authors, I feel compelled to explain that the part with the cage-shaped pendant in this chapter and the line "To remind you that you are free" (just like the Ariadne-Theseus reference later in the story) are NOT taken from Rae's (Astarael00's) awesome Ai-Conan drabbles. (Please go to his profile to find his drabbles since you're definitely going to enjoy them if you are an Ai-Conan fan.) The cage was already in the old version of Encounter, which was written during the same time as SN's (Ritzen's) "Galatea" years ago and was a homage to Holly Golightly from "Breakfast at Tiffany's," who was terrified of a cage because she never wanted to be in one. (Rae, SN and I sometimes have brain-sharing moments, which is one of the many reasons why I love them so much. *end of a totally inappropriate love declaration XD)


	6. Part One: Since time is running short...

 

 

x.

_When we played our charade_

_We were like children posing_

_Playing at games_

_Acting out names_

_Guessing the parts we played_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Since time is running short...**

_(based on SK's notebook entry on Friday night, November 2nd 20xx_ )

m.

 

Since time is running short, they must question Signora Hino now before he can inform Shinichi about all the things his sergeants have found out. The talks with the ushers, the bar keepers, and the technical crew were very fruitful indeed even though the results still don't shed light on the mystery of what Signora Tenoh could have died of. In fact, things have become even more complicated, Carrara admits on the way to Hino's dressing room.

Apart from Gentile and Moretti, no one thought that Seiya returned after the second act through the main entrance—neither the ushers nor the bar keepers nor any of the technical staff. No one has seen him pass the hall or climb the stage before the third act either although a few of them can remember seeing him flirt with the usher at the left entrance and talk to Gentile at the bar some time before the third act. Sadly, neither of the people who remembered it cared enough about the time to look at their watches.

"Did he talk to the usher before or after talking to Gentile?" Shinichi asks.

"I don't know," Carrara replies while they are walking towards the stage. "Most of them only saw him with either the usher or Signor Gentile. If my memory serves me correctly, Signor Mamoru Chiba is the only one who saw him with both. Why do you ask?"

"Just curiosity. All the things tonight seem so out of order to me," says Shinichi, evasively.

"The people here aren't famous for being exact and orderly," Carrara remarks. "I don't think we can really trust any of the statements when it comes to the time and the order of things. We can't even be sure that they haven't made it all up."

Apparently, everyone working at the opera house enjoyed gossiping about Tenoh Haruka and Seiya Kou. The ushers seem to have resented Tenoh a bit because "he" would hit on any good-looking young woman in the vicinity whenever "he" appeared, breaking countless hearts with "his" irresistible charm and "his" empty promises. Surprisingly, they can't say the same for Seiya Kou, who is solely focused on his roles and his secretary and who—at least during the winter season when he sings at La Fenice—seems like a workaholic in the truest sense of the word. Despite his scandalous reputation, which preceded him when he came to Venice, he appears to all the people at La Fenice rather mysterious and distant, barricading himself in his dressing room whenever he is not on stage and avoiding all sorts of social gatherings. Furthermore, none of the people here know his secretary personally even though it is common knowledge that she often accompanies him and that the poor pair always has to flee from his obsessive fans.

"Apart from the one usher he flirted with—Signora Alessandra DiGiorgio, a friend of Signora Nadia Gorowitz—who claims that they're a cohabiting couple, something she only heard from Signora Gorowitz, all the ushers and the technicians told us that Signor Seiya Kou seems romantically interested in his secretary while she is keeping him at arm's length," Carrara continues. "She spent a lot of private time with Signora Tenoh, too, and was often seen with Signora Tenoh while Signor Seiya Kou was busy rehearsing at La Fenice. Sometimes they even went off on their own, leaving Signor Seiya Kou alone. Signor Seiya Kou must have been beside himself with jealousy, living with her while she was interested in someone else... But that's the irony of fate, being pursued by an army of women without having the slightest chance with the one he is in love with. His looks and his voice are completely useless for him when it comes to her unless he dares to go as far as changing his gender to suit her preference."

Amused at Carrara's ridiculous theory, Shinichi is about to remark that one of the things he is absolutely sure of is Miyano Shiho's preference for men when the door to the backstage café opens and Chiba Mamoru appears, followed by Kino Makoto, who flashes them a bashful grin before closing the door behind her. Both of them have already put on their coats—his short and black and hers green and long—which Chiba must have fetched from Hino's dressing room instead of the cloakroom because Shinichi has not seen him pass the hall. Makoto and he are going to wait for Rei, Seiya, and Shiho at Seiya's boat, Chiba Mamoru explains. After the tragedy tonight, a bit of fresh air will do Kino good.

"But it might take us another hour before we can let them go home," Carrara says. "Wouldn't it be better for the two of you to stay here instead of waiting for them in the cold?"

They can always come back if it gets too chilly, Chiba declines, politely thanking Carrara for his concern while Kino approaches Shinichi with a smile, returning him his mobile phone with an expression of immense gratitude in her eyes.

"I called a friend in Tokyo," she tells him, fishing out her wallet. "I think it cost you a lot because I tend to ramble whenever I'm nervous."

"Please don't," Shinichi rejects her attempt to pay him, wondering how she would react if she knew that all of her calls have been recorded. "I'm glad I was able to help you a bit."

After praising him for his generosity once again and telling him to drop into her flower shop soon so that she can thank him with cakes and flowers, she hurries after Chiba towards the exit in large strides, slamming her heels confidently and vigorously on the floor. Gazing after her with some surprise, Carrara remarks to Shinichi that her attitude now is distinctively different from the attitude she had before.

m.

Hearing a commotion on stage just when they are about to climb the stairs to Hino's dressing room, Shinichi stops and turns when a woman wearing a long black coat and a wide-brimmed black hat emerges from the curtains, rushing towards them with an air of fierce determination. One of the young sergeants who has been talking to Carrara at the right entrance of the hall is closely following her with his arms awkwardly stretched out in front of him, obviously unsure about whether he should pull her back or not.

"Please, you're not allowed to enter the backstage area," the sergeant exclaims in an attempt to stop her without telling her about Tenoh's death, throwing his arms into the air in a helpless gesture when he sees Carrara's raised eyebrow.

"Why not?" she demands, turning her angelic face towards Carrara and Shinichi while proceeding to the door of Tenoh's dressing room. "I'm Haruka's girlfriend. Is he still in there? I need to talk to him."

Her voice is clear and slightly higher than expected, possessing an edge which, in combination with its pleasant timbre, is vaguely intriguing.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that's impossible," Carrara says, gently removing her hand from the doorknob. "Signora Tenoh..."

Even before he can inform her of Tenoh's death, Kaioh Michiru's eyes widen in horror at the realization of what he is going to say. Noticing her deathly pale face and the way she staggers back a step from the door, Shinichi drags her by her arm to the backstage café and lowers her into a chair before she can break down while Carrara orders the officer, who has followed them, to pour her a glass of water. For lack of words which aren't meaningless or downright rude in this situation—"We're sorry for your loss" somehow seems a wrong thing to say—the three of them wait in silence until the colour returns to her face and she fixes her mascara-framed eyes inquiringly on Carrara, waiting for an explanation.

An autopsy is unavoidable considering Signora Tenoh's sudden death, Carrara insists after giving Kaioh a short summary of the things which happened, skipping all the details. While he doesn't suspect anyone or even dares to imply that Tenoh died an unnatural death, he needs to stick to the standard procedure... just the usual bureaucracy one has to put up with nowadays, nothing to worry about, really...

"All right," she only says, knitting her perfectly groomed brows while staring into her glass of water. She has removed her black hat in the meantime, causing her loose sea-green locks to spill over her shoulders and down her back in gentle waves, a sight evocative of Andersen's mermaid. Contemplating her face with the anonymous admiration people usually have for beauty so unbelievably great that it is almost painful to behold, Shinichi marvels at the inaccessible coldness of it, wondering whether Kaioh's inability to move him even just a little bit on a more personal level has something to do with her flawless features lacking the charm of imperfection.

"Why did you come so late?" Shinichi asks her. "The opera was supposed to end at half-past nine, wasn't it?" Even if she had taken Tenoh's quirk of delaying the last part of a concert for fifteen to thirty minutes into consideration, Kaioh should have appeared about ten p.m. instead of over an hour later.

They wanted to meet at the cinema to watch a movie together tonight, Kaioh tells them in a tired voice. But when Haruka didn't come at half-past ten—fifteen minutes after the movie had already started—and she still couldn't reach her on the phone, she grew restless and decided to go to La Fenice, assuming that Haruka had been partying with her friends and had forgotten to switch on her mobile phone after the performance.

"I was late, too, because I'm always late," she explains, taking a sip of her water. "But Haruka usually isn't. She is always very punctual, which is why her absence worried me."

A strange assertion considering Tenoh's continual lateness even during a concert. However, it does seem to Shinichi that Kaioh adored Tenoh with a blind love close to madness and overlooked her faults more than willingly.

"I was surprised that you didn't watch the opera," Shinichi remarks, wondering why a woman who seems so devoted to her life partner would pass up such a chance.

"I preferred to stay home," she explains, unfazed by his questioning gaze. "I wanted to work on a few paintings because I have a deadline to meet. Haruka said she didn't mind that I couldn't come to the opera if I went with her to the cinema afterwards. The movie was more important for us."

"What movie were you going to watch?" Shinichi asks, surprised at her statement that it was more important for her and Tenoh than the world premiere of Tenoh's own opera was. But nothing can describe his shock when she gives him a faint, enigmatic smile—a Haibara-Ai-smile—and answers in a British accent: " _Charade_."

m.

"I've seen the oil painting of Tenoh as Sherlock Holmes in her dressing room," Shinichi continues after a moment of stupefied silence, in which the memory of Ai lying on the sofa, watching _Charade_ the night he took the antidote, appeared so vividly in front of his eyes as if he were looking at a photo of it. "Did you paint it? I'm curious because I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan, too."

"Sherlock Holmes?" Kaioh stares at him, apparently confused.

"There were also a few Sherlock Holmes novels in her dressing room," he tells her. "A very beautiful edition, hand-bound. Were they a present from you?"

"I don't know anything about such things," she sighs, "and I'm not in the mood to think about them now. I'd like to go home, if you don't mind."

"Would you like to see her body before you go?" Carrara asks. "To say goodbye?"

"No," she vehemently declines, clutching at her handbag like a drowning person at a life buoy. "I don't want to see a corpse. I want to see her alive." Staring into space, she murmurs with an expression of utter despair in her eyes: "There would be no hope left after seeing her corpse, because there is nothing in this world worth living for if Haruka really died."

"That's not true," Shinichi says sharply. "There will always be many other people who need you. One should never run away from one's fate, no matter how much one wants to do it."

Turning her face to him in surprise, Kaioh breaks into hysterical laughter while her azure eyes are glistening with unshed tears, disturbing the young sergeant, who hasn't expected such a behaviour from a woman like her. Then she stops and frowns into space again, blinking a few times in quick succession as if there was something she can't understand. Apparently, her disbelief at Tenoh's sudden death hasn't passed yet, and Carrara throws Shinichi a look conveying that he, too, has begun to worry about what might happen after the realization kicks in and she finds herself alone in the apartment she once shared with her girlfriend.

"I'm sorry," she says after regaining her composure and empties her glass of water in one gulp. "Please don't worry about me. I'm really not the suicidal type."

"We only need your contact information in Venice before you can go home," Shinichi pulls his notebook and his pen out of his pocket. "Since I heard you have two apartments, I'd like to have both addresses."

"Haruka and I only have one." She shakes her head, persistently using the present tense when she talks about Tenoh.

"Seiya Kou is living in the other apartment of yours, isn't he?" Shinichi casually remarks. "I mean the apartment in Cannaregio... I heard he is living with his secretary there."

"It's their apartment now since he has already bought it from me," Kaioh corrects him, fixing him with a gaze which now shows the same recognition he has already seen in Chiba's and Hino's eyes.

"Come to think of it... It's rather odd that a singer would share his apartment with his secretary." Shinichi runs his hand through his hair in mock distraction, pretending to talk to himself.

"He likes her very much," Kaioh explains with wariness in her voice. "She is an extremely efficient girl. He says he would be lost without her organizing his schedule and taking care of his paperwork."

Does she know where they met each other? He is curious because Miyano Shiho is an old schoolfriend of his.

She gazes at him thoughtfully with strangely knowing eyes before she throws a quick sidelong glance at Carrara and sighs.

"I don't know," she dismisses his question with an impatient movement of her head. "You should ask them all these things personally. I'd like to go home now."

Will she be all right at home all alone, Carrara asks her before suggesting that she call a few friends or relatives who can look after her during the first days after her partner's death.

"I'd rather be alone," she says decisively. "I'm accustomed to being alone."

Another strange statement considering she is living with Tenoh, Shinichi thinks, puzzled by her last sentence. But he can't detect any sign of loneliness or self-pity in her voice, only the irritation of a proud woman, who wants to deal with her grief on her own without other people continually touching on it.

"Can you please give us your address?" Carrara asks, handing her his notebook and his pen, which she ignores just like she did with Shinichi's. Instead, she dictates him her address with the air of a chairwoman dictating a letter to her secretary while regarding him with her superior and calm gaze.

The mental image of her sitting at an antique mahogany desk in front of _The Return of Sherlock Holmes_ suddenly appears before Shinichi's eyes. And although her statement that she doesn't know anything about the Sherlock Holmes novels sounded true to his ears, he can imagine her with a pen in her hand—probably an exquisite limited edition which suits her style—smiling mysteriously to herself while writing in black ink: "To the Sherlock of the 21st century. I hope you like my presents. Michiru..."

"I'm going to contact you tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and send you Signora Tenoh's belongings," Carrara smiles, gallantly extending his hand to help her to her feet while gesturing the sergeant at the bar to move nearer with a movement of his head. "Since it's late, sergeant Alessi will bring you home now."

"I'd like someone else to bring me home," she declines, ignoring Carrara's outstretched hand, and hesitates for a moment before asking: "Seiya... Is he still in his dressing room?"

"Yes, he is, but we still need to ask him a few routine questions, and you'll have to wait for another hour because we still need to talk to Signora Hino, too, who has come with him in his motorboat tonight. Signora Kino and Signor Chiba are waiting for him at his boat as well. I fear there won't be enough space in his boat for all of you. I can ask them to accompany you home, though, if you like."

"Well, then it can't be helped. I'm going to wait for Seiya at his boat with Makoto and Mamoru," she says, gracefully rises from the chair, bids them goodbye with a civil smile, and saunters down the corridor towards the exit while the sergeant who has been assigned to escort her is gazing after her with a look of regret, blushing like a little girl.

Watching her walk away with natural grace, her shoulders relaxed, her head held high, and her feet put on the floor in gentle, deliberate movements like those of ballet dancers without the artificial turnout of their feet, Shinichi is strangely reminded of Ai and wonders how a woman whose life partner just died can still walk like this.

m.

Waiting for them in front of her dressing table with a dark look on her face, Hino Rei might as well be a modern version of Snow White with her fair skin, blood-red lips, and sleek black hair reaching her waist. She has exchanged her mauve silk dress and pumps for a red pullover, a knee-length black skirt, black tights, and a pair of red sneakers, shaking off her previous tired and worn look. Even without the black eyeliner, her almond-shaped eyes are sharp and intense, and the outlines of her beautiful face are now noticeably softer after removing the thick layers of make-up she wore on stage. Despite the angry look in her eyes, offstage-Hino appears to Shinichi now much more approachable than she seemed the first time Carrara and he talked to her.

"Mamoru already told me that Haruka died naturally," she says without further ado. "There's no need to question us anymore, right?" she smirks at them, swinging the bag in her hand. "You've let me wait for an eternity! I'm going home now."

Only a few routine questions, Carrara gives her a placatory smile. He knows that she must be extremely exhausted after such a strenuous and eventful evening. They are only going to bother her for ten to fifteen minutes, not more. These are just routine inquiries.

In contrast to Chiba Mamoru and Kino Makoto, however, Hino Rei flatly refuses to say anything about the happenings of tonight. Anything she can tell them they must have already heard from Makoto or Mamoru, which is why she is not going to waste time chatting about irrelevant things. She herself doesn't know anything, hasn't seen or heard anything worth mentioning and has forgotten everything she has seen or heard by now because she was totally absorbed in her role, which was her first solo role and so extremely hard that she had practically worked her fingers to the bone just to survive through it. She will never forgive Haruka for writing such an insanely difficult soprano part and giving it to such an inexperienced singer like her just to drop dead in the middle of the world premiere and abandon her so that she had to make do with Mamoru—an amateur pianist!—to blunder through the rest of the concert, making a fool of herself in front of a full house.

"But the performance was still a great success, wasn't it?" Carrara tries to appease her. "The third act wasn't bad at all."

"No, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't great either. It wasn't even good! It certainly wasn't Mamoru's fault because he has practised his part extremely well, much better than Haruka, to be honest. But, as an accompanist, he naturally lacked the routine. I had to adjust myself to him instead of vice versa, and he strictly kept to the same steady regular beat throughout the whole act as if he had been playing with a metronome!" She winces at the memory. "It was such a ridiculously stiff performance! And the audience was so distracted by Haruka's absence that no one even pretended to pay attention to us... If Haruka weren't already dead, I would consider killing her for ruining my debut!"

"Why do you call Tenoh's opera a concert?" Shinichi asks. "I'm curious because the artistic director called it a concert, too."

Raising her brows at him, Hino, who has ignored him until now, calmly studies him with the same attitude with which other people would study an insect whose remarkable hideousness has caught their interest—a very large cockroach, for example, or a very fat fly. Accustomed to making a positive impression on all the women he encounters, Shinichi wonders whether the instant dislike Hino has taken to him has anything to do with the recognition he saw in her eyes back in the corridor.

"It's called an opera and somehow gives one the impression that it is really an opera because of the operatic character of the pieces. But formally, it should be called a concert," she explains with an exasperated sigh. "A three-part series of songs with piano accompaniment and an operatic performance by the singer, preferably a tenor or a soprano. Haruka said that, since there's no opera for only one singer and a piano in the world, she'd written a ridiculously difficult and long one and dedicated it to Seiya to pay him back for his puerile pranks. I told her no one would want to ruin their voice and perform it, much less Seiya, whom she can't control, so she simply dumped the whole thing on me and dared me to do it. I can't believe I was stupid enough to let her talk me into this! But it's no use trying to resist her. She'd always win."

"So Signora Tenoh dedicated the opera to Signor Seiya Kou, who didn't even listen to it? After pushing yourself so much for tonight's performance, you must be angry at him for missing the opera. Signora Kino told us you two are good friends. It was certainly thoughtless of him to let you down like that," Carrara observes, smiling.

"No," Hino says sharply. "I'm not angry at him at all since I know he would have come if it had been possible. Seiya is usually very conscientious and reliable. He might be fashionably late or turn up at the last minute, but he'd always come. Even during his teen idol years, he never missed a single concert, neither of himself nor of his friends and colleagues."

"I heard he once broke down during one of his concerts," Shinichi remarks.

"At the end of it," she says warily. "He was already finished with the performance and broke down before the curtain calls. That happened only once, though."

"So it's true that he was so much in love with a girl that he broke down at the end of a concert?" Carrara asks, incredulous.

"Of course not," she winces. "Seiya is the most resilient person on earth. No love problems can break him like that. Back then many different things added up during a pretty difficult phase of his life and he was very sick into the bargain. It only lasted for a few days, though, before he was back on his feet again. I wouldn't remind him of that episode if I were you. He wouldn't appreciate it."

"No, he certainly wouldn't," Carrara agrees. "You know, it surprised me to learn that Signora Tenoh dedicated the opera to him since I heard there had been some tension between them. Someone told me they were rivals. And I heard from someone else that they had been quarrelling tonight, too, this time about Signora Shiho Miyano, the secretary he is living with."

"They always quarrelled about something," Hino shrugs. "I don't know about any quarrels tonight, though. Must have happened while I was studying the scores."

"The relationship between Signor Seiya Kou and Signora Shiho Miyano seems very ambiguous, by the way. Everyone tells us something different. Is she a good friend of his or only his secretary, or is there something more between them?"

Hino raises her brow at him, visibly amused.

"If you can really believe the fairy tale that Seiya is sharing his beloved refuge from the world with his secretary, go ahead."

"So she is really his girlfriend?" Shinichi asks in disbelief, aghast at Hino's remark because she seems an astute observer to him. After Chiba's witness account, he had been absolutely positive that Ai was only a secretary and friend whose good looks Seiya used to fight off the advances of his female fans. However, noticing Kino Makoto's hesitation and Kaioh Michiru's reticence when the nature of their relationship was mentioned, he is no longer sure...

"He insists that she isn't, but when I grilled him about it, he admitted that he'd like her to be." Rummaging through her large bag, Hino fishes out a red lipstick, which she applies with artfully concealed nervousness. "I'll deny telling you anything and won't hesitate to sue you if you're low enough to spill it to the reporters and the paparazzi. I'm only telling you about them because I hate beating about the bush when it comes to something as obvious as this." She shrugs, running her fingers through her long black hair. "No one who has ever seen them together can believe the story that she is his secretary, apart from the fact that a singer doesn't need a secretary to begin with. Seiya has been in love with her for years by now, showering her with attention and flowers and sneaking her a kiss whenever he thinks no one is looking. She always pretends to fight him off but she seems to like it." Frowning, she straightens her skirt and sighs. "They actually do look like an item to me, going on evening passeggiata strolls together and bickering about who is going to cook and who is going to do the laundry. It wouldn't surprise me if he finally let the cat out of the bag and admitted that they're already married."

"But why should he try to hide their relationship even from his friends?" Carrara asks.

"I don't know. Seiya has always been rather distant and secretive despite his outward appearance. Maybe he is hiding her from everyone to spare her the publicity? She doesn't seem like the type who would enjoy it. Right now, she isn't really interesting in the public eye despite all the rumours about them. Everyone can see that they flirt a lot in public, but it doesn't seem odd considering her looks and his reputation, especially since he still flirts around with others, too. As long as he denies it, she is only one of the hundreds of women whom they try to pair up with him in the gossip columns. But as his official girlfriend, she'd be in the centre of public interest. You must know that, despite his reputation and his flirting, Seiya was as pure as the driven snow. If they found out that there was something more between them than a harmless little flirt, the journalists and his fans would immediately dissect Shiho."

"So the scandal with Chiba's wife was something the reporters made up?" Shinichi asks, deciding to take everything she told him with a pinch of salt, as the phrase "as pure as the driven snow" absolutely doesn't agree with the things he has heard about the former teen idol.

"You're really fixated on Seiya, aren't you?" Hino eyes him with a look of distaste. "That one was Haruka's fault because she absolutely had to stick her nose into other people's business. But I can assure you Seiya has completely forgotten about it by now. Even Mamoru doesn't care about it anymore."

"What did Signora Tenoh have to do with it?" Carrara asks, confused.

"I'm not going to spread malicious gossip," Hino says, trying to look indignant without being able to hide her relief at the realization that Carrara and Shinichi know less about the affair than she has assumed. "It's just some unfortunate misunderstanding which they already cleared up long ago. Anyway... Makoto told me Shiho had a migraine tonight and that Seiya went out to get her painkillers. So, quarrel or no quarrel, he is out of the picture since he couldn't have had anything to do with Haruka's death. Can you imagine him driving home to fetch the woman of his dreams painkillers and then coming back to murder Haruka in her dressing room before giving the painkillers to Shiho? I can't. Why should he do something so absurd?" Hino's brows furrow. "I don't believe he'd have had the heart to do that to me either, knowing that it's my first evening in a main role."

"He could have given his secretary the painkillers before murdering Tenoh," Shinichi suggests, deciding to play devil's advocate with her.

As expected, Hino shoots him a withering glare, and Shinichi thinks in amusement that, in her difficult way, she is rather predictable.

"He couldn't. He came to me after the second break and was here for a few minutes—at eight fifteen, I remember—to apologize about his absence. He told me Shiho was sleeping on the sofa in his dressing room and that he decided not to give her the painkillers because he didn't want to disturb her. Haruka was still alive at that time because Signor Gentile told us he talked to her for the last time at a quarter past eight. Seiya would have had to go to Haruka immediately after leaving me and start a conversation with Haruka to distract her and murder her before going to Shiho—an impossible task in such a short time because Haruka was very smart and very capable of defending herself. He was in his dressing room when we discovered Haruka's body... It would have been such a cold-blooded murder!" She knits her brows. "No, that's absurd. It's not like him. Seiya isn't a man to bear grudges, apart from the fact that no one could have murdered Haruka with a cup of water."

"I didn't say I suspected anyone," Carrara claims. "I heard the relations between him and Signora Tenoh were strained, though. It made me curious..."

"Seiya didn't have anything against Haruka," Hino decisively shakes her head. "It was Haruka, who always seemed to have something against him. She provoked him into a fight all the time, invading his privacy and giving him unwanted advice about how to live his life despite knowing exactly how much he hates those things."

"Was there some sort of rivalry between them?" Carrara asks.

"I think Haruka envied him a bit since the moment they met," Hino shrugs. "Like Michiru, they both were great at pretty much anything without working themselves into the ground like normal human beings. But somehow Haruka never seemed able to enjoy her privileged existence as Seiya does. Seiya is the epitome of happiness, and Haruka apparently begrudged him his ability to have fun."

"She was unhappy?" Carrara asks in surprise.

"No, she didn't seem unhappy to me, only much more complicated and driven than she appeared at first glance. And she loved to be in the spotlight. I think she disliked Seiya because he was more popular than her. She didn't like men in general. The only man she could stand was Mamoru because he is diplomatic enough to handle her." Hino sighs. "I loved Haruka very much as everyone else here did. Nobody was really immune to her charm and her forceful personality. But I'm not so blind when it comes to Haruka's weaknesses like Makoto, who would have had her limbs chopped off for her." She frowns, staring into the distance. "You know what? If Seiya were dead, I'd immediately have jumped to the conclusion that Haruka did it. But, as things are, it doesn't make sense to me that he would ruin his perfect life by murdering her."

"Signor Seiya Kou seems to have a sunny disposition," Carrara says thoughtfully.

"Seems? He is and has always been carefree save for a few occasions when he really had a reason to be upset. And that state never lasts long." A small smile flits across her face. "He is a survivor. Nothing will ever break his spirit."

"How was the relationship between Signora Haruka Tenoh and Signora Michiru Kaioh?" Carrara asks. "I wonder whether it was a stormy one because Signora Kaioh didn't attend the world premiere of her life partner tonight."

"You're making a lot of assumptions for which you have absolutely no proof," Hino sighs. "Michiru probably had better things to do than to attend an 'opera' which Haruka only wrote as a practical joke on Seiya. Apart from that, Michiru is always a real lady, not somebody one can have a stormy relationship with." She demonstratively yawns and turns her attention to the mirror to put on a red woolly hat and a white cashmere shawl, fastidiously rearranging her bangs afterwards. "Another woman wouldn't have been able to put up with Haruka for so many years, I think. As a friend, Haruka was a jewel of a person. But she was a real nightmare of a life partner, bossy and overbearing, unreasonably jealous all the time although she was a dreadful flirt and unfaithful herself. No pretty woman was safe from her..." Realizing that she has gossiped about her friends even though she didn't intend to, Hino frowns—interestingly enough, not at Carrara's but only at Shinichi's reflection—and aggressively adds: "Michiru loved her very much, despite all that. And what does it have to do with Haruka's death, anyway? If you believe Michiru or any of us could have done anything to harm Haruka, you're way off the mark."

"There is a Sherlock Holmes painting in Tenoh's dressing room. Do you know who painted it?" Shinichi asks, changing the topic. "I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan and like it very much."

No, she doesn't know who painted it, she says with a shrug, and she really couldn't care less because it's totally irrelevant. In reply to his next question regarding the Sherlock Holmes novels, Hino declares in exasperation that—before tonight when she saw Haruka's corpse—she had never been in Haruka's dressing room, had never seen any Sherlock Holmes novels or Sherlock Holmes paintings and, if she had seen anything related to Sherlock Holmes, she wouldn't remember it because she is absolutely not interested in Sherlock Holmes in general.

"Haruka loved her privacy," her frown deepens, "even more than Seiya, who at least lets us visit him. They both had got a thing about their dressing rooms as well. Somehow I have the impression they spent more time on decorating their dressing rooms than on rehearsing and studying their scores."

Slipping into her coat with the air of a warrior putting on his armour, she indicates the old clock on her dressing table and remarks: "You said ten to fifteen minutes. But it's almost midnight. You've stolen too much of my time!"

"When Seiya came here to visit you, did you look at the clock or did you only guess the time?" Shinichi asks her.

"Of course I looked at the clock," she raises her brow at him, the corners of her lips curling in amusement. Obviously, she is thinking to herself that he doesn't live up to his excellent reputation because he seems a bit slow on the uptake.

"But your clock is fifteen minutes fast," Shinichi remarks with a glance at his watch. "Did you take that into consideration when you told us the time Seiya was here, or didn't you know that your clock is fast?"

The expression of shock and confusion on her face—a reaction so immediate that Shinichi doubts it is faked—turns into intense pain before she regains her composure and defiantly meets his gaze, smirking with a nonchalant wave of her arm.

"That old clock is always fifteen minutes fast. It showed eight thirty when he came here. So I told you it was eight fifteen."

"Your clock isn't fifteen minutes fast," Carrara pedantically observes. "It's ten minutes slow." He turns to Shinichi with a confused look on his face. "So your watch must be twenty-five minutes slow because I'm sure that mine is keeping good time. My mobile phone shows the same time as well." Throwing a glance at Shinichi's watch, he exclaims in surprise: "But your watch is keeping good time, too..."

"Sorry, my mistake." Shinichi smiles at Hino. "It was a slip of the tongue. I wanted to say your clock is about fifteen, well, ten minutes, slow."

Although he knows that there is a temperamental character behind that cool and tough facade, he is still surprised by the barely controlled fury and hatred he can see in her eyes. Underneath her boiling anger, he can also identify sadness, disappointment, and fear flickering by turns across her face. At some point, one of those feelings must have won because Hino only sighs, deciding to adapt herself to the situation although her hands are still trembling with rage.

"Well, what shall I say? I think I made a mistake, too. One gets accustomed to adjusting oneself to a slow clock, and I'm sure I automatically added that ten minutes when we talked. Anyway, he was here at eight fifteen and stayed for a few minutes, and I will stick to my story even in court whether you believe me or not. I think I'm getting really tired and distracted, which is a signal for me to go to bed as soon as possible. I suggest you let Seiya and Shiho go home now as well instead of pestering them about Haruka's death. Seiya needs to be in shape for tomorrow night."

"We still need your address and contact number before you go," Shinichi reminds her with a smile, handing her his notebook and his pen.

"Why, you aren't the commissario leading the investigation, are you?" She smirks at him, pushing his notebook aside. "You're only a private sleuth who snoops around here because your nose told you that there are mysteries to solve. Too bad you're dead wrong this time, because the mysteries are all about private love affairs of other people, things which should be none of your concern, not that a mystery nerd like you would care."

"May I have your contact address, Signora?" Carrara asks with a smile, handing her a sheet of paper, which she declines.

"Here," she says, pulling a card out of her handbag. "I'm going home now. Good night."

Leaning against the banister while waiting for Hino to lock up her dressing room, Shinichi throws a glance at the card in Carrara's hand and realizes that her address is the same as Aino Minako's.

"I didn't know you're sharing an apartment with Aino Minako," he remarks. "Or are you two neighbours?"

Turning round to him with a hand on the banister, Hino's dark eyes light up with a wicked glint.

"We're sharing an apartment. But she is neither my life partner nor my 'secretary', if that's what you wanted to know." She smirks at him while proudly descending the stairs. "We're only good friends. Get your mind out of the gutter, you perverted little sleuth!"

m.

Muttering something about prima donnas and their bad hair day under his breath, Carrara gives Shinichi's shoulder a reassuring clap before following Hino downstairs. In response, Shinichi only shrugs, thinking that—compared to Haibara Ai's hot and cold treatment—Hino's temper tantrums are rather harmless, perhaps even helpful because they have given him exactly the answers he wanted. Before he pointed it out to her, Hino obviously didn't know that her clock was slow; and for a reason he can easily guess, she believes to know with certainty which of her friends put it back.

The moment she reaches the end of the staircase and turns to the right, Hino stops and gazes with some surprise in the direction of the backstage café. Noticing the little smile on her face as she resumes walking, Shinichi can deduce the reason even before he hears the rattling sound and sees the small bunch of keys flying through the air, landing with unerring accuracy in the open palm of her outstretched hand.

"Since there's not enough space for all of us in the boat, I thought it'd be better if you bring everyone home now instead of waiting for us," remarks a voice in Japanese, which Shinichi immediately identifies as that of Ai's alleged boyfriend due to its inherently seductive and captivating beauty. Facing the source of the voice, Shinichi calmly sizes up the famous singer, who—despite looking completely different from Kuroba—reminds him oddly of Kaitou Kid because there is the same air about him, the same somnambulistic confidence and effortless grace along with a complete absence of social fear, things Tenoh must have meant when she said that he radiated "genuine star quality."

"I'll come back and fetch you later," Hino says in the same casual tone, her voice sounding slightly higher and less husky when she speaks Japanese than when she speaks Italian. "Hopefully you don't mind that I've already spilled all about your 'secretary' and you. There's no need to keep such things secret from the law, you know. They'd have found it out on their own, anyway, when they see you two."

"I don't mind. As far as I know, sharing one's apartment with one's secretary isn't considered a crime here," observes Seiya Kou, who is leaning against the door to the backstage café, while Hino Rei only waves his words away in a dismissive gesture.

"Sharing one's bed with one's secretary isn't considered a crime either. That's why there's no need to hide it," she deadpans before disappearing around the corner on the way to the exit. Not in the least taken aback by her impertinent remark, Seiya only smiles to himself, turns, and swiftly approaches Carrara and Shinichi with the air of someone who is accustomed to take centre stage, the curly end of his long ponytail flying behind him like a black sail.

Trying to see the singer and actor through the eyes of a disinterested observer, Shinichi must admit that Ran was right and that the black-and-white photo in the foyer didn't do him justice. The photographer who took the portrait had—while trying to insert a non-existent sentimentality—failed to capture his expressive eyes and easy unaffected manner, resulting in a photo which emphasizes all of his striking features but neglects the things which make up the large part of his charisma. Instead of the dreamy soft look the camera must have caught during a rather uncommon moment, there is a lively and attentive expression in his face, whose intangible charm and approachable attractiveness don't quite fit the role he is going to sing this season. In contrast to his voice and his face, however, Seiya's taste in clothing is so appallingly poor that it is almost excellent in its own right. Eccentrically clad in a glaring red silk dress shirt adorned by an intricate pattern of black and white lines and a pair of midnight-blue dress slacks with an open waistcoat of a startling blue complementing the colour of his eyes, Seiya Kou has happily finished off his colourful outfit with white gold earrings, a silvery blue satin band around his extraordinarily long ponytail, and a green-yellow-orange-striped tie. There is also a long platinum chain around his neck, which is almost completely hidden beneath the collar of his shirt, and a broad platinum ring on the middle finger of his right hand. Whoever chose his opera attire for tonight, Shinichi is positive that person was not Ai.

Just like Shinichi is scanning him, Seiya's curious eyes seem to scrutinize Shinichi's face for a moment before he smiles at him while simultaneously acknowledging Carrara's presence with a nod.

"Seiya Kou," he introduces himself in Japanese and then, with a friendly glance at Carrara, effortlessly switches to colloquial Italian. "Shinichi Kudo, right? Of course I'd recognize the detective who brought down the Organization. I remember seeing you on the news... and Shiho has told me so much about you, too."

"We were classmates once," Shinichi casually remarks, shaking his outstretched hand, which feels pleasantly dry and warm, showing no sign of fear or nervousness. "I'd never have expected her to work as your secretary, though. We lost touch with each other a few years ago. Where did you find her?"

"Stumbled over her during a visit to Haruka's house," Seiya answers cheerfully. "I couldn't believe my luck when she said she wouldn't mind going to Venice with me or taking care of all the paperwork as long as I do the laundry."

Without noticeable malicious intent, his words stir memories of close friends and partners sharing domestic chores, reminding Shinichi of the time Hattori, Ai, and he spent together in Paris at M Jean Black's house and giving him the odd sense of being replaced by someone else while he was away. Noticing that there is a pleasant scent about the one-time teen idol, which is evocative of warm autumn nights—the fragrance of kinmokusei?—Shinichi wonders whether Ai had taken a liking to his scent and his genial attitude immediately after meeting him. She has always reacted strongly to the aura and the scents of the people around her, Shinichi recalls, for the first time considering the possibility that there could be a grain of truth in Hino's assertion that Ai feels a bit attracted to her employer despite fighting off his cheeky displays of affection.

After introducing himself to Seiya and showing his badge, Carrara begins his interrogation by effusively flattering the singer's ego. He has heard so much about his beautiful voice and can't wait to listen to his heavenly singing now that he has finally heard his wonderful, wonderful speaking voice. Such exquisite timbre and smoothness, so extremely melodious and seductive. A voice like his in combination with such fantastic good looks... No wonder the women are all in love with him. It must be extremely difficult for his secretary to be in a purely platonic business relationship with a man who is that attractive, especially with all the rumours flying around—

"Thanks very much. You're investigating Haruka's death, right? I doubt Shiho and I can be of much help to you since she was asleep and I was away most of the time," Seiya uncaringly cuts him off without showing the slightest sign of embarrassment at Carrara's insinuation. "It's almost midnight and she seems very tired. What about letting us go home now and postponing the interview until tomorrow?" His gaze is still friendly and curious when it leaves Carrara's eyes to return to Shinichi's. But there is also something else in it which only Shinichi can discern, something watchful and unflinchingly decisive, almost challenging.

"I'm sorry we've let you wait for so long," Carrara readily apologizes, changing his approach. "I still need your address and telephone number, and I'd like to ask you a few routine questions about the happenings of tonight before you go. It will take us only a few minutes since Signora Tenoh seems to have died naturally, anyway. I hope you don't mind." He flashes the singer an engaging smile. "I'm sure you're very busy because of the musical tomorrow night. Maybe we don't even need to bother you tomorrow."

"We can talk in the café until Rei returns with the boat," Seiya suggests, heading back to his dressing room while Carrara and Shinichi are following him. "But afterwards I'd like to go home."

The door to the dressing room opens just when Seiya is about to turn the doorknob, and a fine-boned hand emerges from the darkness of the room to shove a bunch of keys into his face, along with a long leather jacket, a short beige trench coat, a lavender silk scarf, a mauve leather bag, and a small handbag in the same blue as Seiya's eyes. Carrying all the things she dumped on him with the stoic attitude of someone who has to do it on a regular basis, Seiya Kou steps aside to let Miyano Shiho walk out of the room, almost colliding with Shinichi, who has automatically taken a step towards the door to have a better look at her.

There is no jolt of surprise when their eyes meet, as if she, too, had known in advance that he would be there. But a moment of stunned silence stretches out between them during which she is only blinking at him in confusion, her eyes trailing from his neck (her eye level) to his lips, his eyes, and his hair (slightly longer than three years ago), to his impeccable opera attire (black leather shoes, a silver-grey dinner suit, a white dress shirt, and a black-mauve-striped bow tie)... while he is raising his brow at her cocktail dress (a relaxed-fit, cowl-neck short dress of a midnight blue so dark he had mistaken it for black when he saw her in the hall), the sight of the familiar chain, which—almost invisible in the dim light—now fits her neck perfectly but conspicuously lacks a pendant, the small platinum bracelet around her wrist (a snug-fit model, which is apparently not removable without a screwdriver), her black tights, naked arms, bare shoulders... her strangely soft gaze and her slightly ruffled hair... Taking in all the things which had been hidden from his view by the crowd and by her lavender scarf when he saw her in the hall—things which are totally uncharacteristic of her!—Shinichi recalls that the Miyano Shiho he knew had always been dressed in other people's clothes when they met, appearing rather tomboyish and casual whereas this woman is so feminine that she seems like a perfect stranger to him.

"Long time no see," she remarks, giving him her familiar nonchalant smile, a tiny gleam of mischievousness lighting up her eyes, and Shinichi realizes with a pang of nostalgia that her real voice as Miyano Shiho is the same as Haibara Ai's—more resonant but of the same timbre—and slightly different from the fake voice he had chosen when he decided to impersonate her.

m.

_End of Part One_

* * *

 

A/N: That was a giant chapter, the longest until now. First I wanted to split it again, but then SN told me that she doesn't mind the length and that I should post it to get it out of the way since I've already written it, so I decided to keep the length instead of splitting it.

Anyway, feel free to PM me if there is something you don't understand or if you want to chat about DC. I'm holidaying these days. XD I'm a pretty blunt person and often put my foot in my mouth, but I usually don't deliberately insult other people. So, if I say/write something stupid, it's probably supposed to be a joke.

I'm not going to update this fic for about a month because my next updates will be for "Ghost at Twilight", which is a version of what might have happened if Ai had been in her adult form on the ship and had not disappeared after the downfall of the Organization.

Edit: Now that I've merged the first chapters together, this chapter is now dwarfed by Chapter 5 (about 11000 words O_o).

 

 


	7. Part Two: Over three years already...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Over three years already...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view_ )

 

x.

"Over three years already," Shinichi responds in Italian. "And despite your promise to keep in touch, you never wrote to any of us."

Acutely aware of Carrara's eyes on him, Shinichi has intended to act out the scene of a normal reunion between old school friends who have just bumped into each other quite by chance while holidaying abroad. No strong feelings or raw emotions, only a pleasant "How do you do?" while suppressing the urge to pin her against the wall and ask her what in God's name she has been up to. But despite his conscious effort to feign indifference, his words sound to his own ears a bit like the reproach of a jilted-lover-turned-friend whom she had abandoned when she went away.

Breaking off their eye contact, she lets her gaze wander to Seiya Kou, who, in turn, casts her a brief sidelong glance before he closes the door to his dressing room and distractedly inserts the key into the lock without looking at it. There seems to be some sort of understanding between them, Shinichi thinks, as if she had told the singer about the reason why she never wrote to him.

"Four by next month," she corrects him, switching into Italian. "And I did write."

"You did?" he asks, astonished by the sincerity in her voice. If it was a lie, she must have perfected her impressive acting skills during the past years because it sounded absolutely truthful to his ears.

"Twice," she smiles, turning to Carrara to introduce herself. "Shiho Miyano."

"You've really written to me twice?" Shinichi exclaims in Japanese, realizing too late that Carrara is introducing himself to her and that he has broken one of the most basic social conventions by cutting in on them. To make matters worse, she has turned her attention to Carrara and completely ignored his question.

"But we really need to go home soon," she tells Carrara while following Seiya Kou into the backstage café, where he, despite the bags and jackets in his arms, opens the door for her, "Seiya hasn't had a good night's sleep for weeks, and tomorrow night is the opening night of _The Phantom of the Opera_. He will sing like a frog if he doesn't get enough sleep." She gives Seiya a teasing smirk as she passes him at the door, "and he will look like a vampire if he doesn't go to bed before dawn."

"Looks aren't that important for the role, but we should really do something about me singing like a frog prince," the singer whispers in Japanese, pulling out a chair for her. Although his voice was so low it was barely audible, Shinichi's sharp ears have managed to pick up the whole sentence.

"Not here, frog princess," she smiles, settling herself comfortably into the chair he has pulled for her, and gently tugs at a strand of his long hair. Exactly the same gestures and facial expressions as four years ago, Shinichi observes, with the only differences being that they aren't stuck in their child forms anymore, that he is now the player who has to guess the phrase (in all probability either "dubious employer-employee relationship," "friends with benefits," or "live-in lover" this time), and that there is no rule to prevent the actors onstage from cracking corny jokes which aren't even remotely funny.

"Kiss him and he will turn into a frog immediately," Shinichi viciously remarks, planting himself on the chair opposite her to continue their previous conversation.

Resting his free hand on the back of her chair, Seiya Kou only flashes him a good-humoured grin and retorts: "That would unquestionably happen if you kissed me," whereupon Ai—much to Shinichi's astonishment—laughs.

"When did you write to me?" Shinichi queries in irritation, putting an end to the nonsense. She seems to have a soft spot for the dork because he amuses her with his juvenile sense of humour, drawing the laugh from her which she used to reserve for pet dogs. However, this is no time for flippancy, and Shinichi is not in the least interested in exchanging quips and pleasantries with a suspect in this situation.

"Not to you," she slowly shakes her head. "I wrote the Professor two letters. I did send you and the others my love, though."

"He never received any."

"They must have got lost somehow."

The dismissive wave of her hand and the air of finality with which she uttered the words would have made Shinichi's blood boil if it weren't for the almost imperceptible flicker of emotion in her eyes. So she really did write, after all, he thinks, or she lied and couldn't contact him for some justifiable reason he has yet to find out. At least she, too, is not as detached as she pretends to be, and the knowledge of this appeases him somewhat for the time being.

Throwing them an interested glance, Seiya Kou hangs the jackets and bags he is carrying on the coat rack while Carrara, who has been following them in silence until now, makes his presence known by seating himself on the chair between Ai and Shinichi and pulling a small bunch of papers out of his large pocket.

"So your position of a secretary involves putting Signor Seiya Kou to bed?" Carrara asks Ai pleasantly, earning a blush from her, a dark look from Seiya, and an alarmed gaze from Shinichi.

"Yes," she fixes Carrara's eyes with a challenging smile before either Shinichi or Seiya can interject. "Much more than that, actually. I have to make sure that he sleeps like a baby. But I won't complain because he is such an attentive employer and I'm extremely well-paid."

Despite her friendly tone concealing the fury she undoubtedly feels, Shinichi knows from previous personal experience (he will never forget the incident with the chili!) that this little exchange is going to have serious repercussions for Carrara if he doesn't stop harassing her, a move so impertinent and moronic that Shinichi is convinced Carrara must have had a good reason for trying it. Leaning against the bar stool behind Ai, Seiya Kou seems to be thinking the same because his angry gaze has immediately turned into a gleeful smile, brightening up his countenance so drastically that he seems like a completely different person in Shinichi's eyes, before the smile, too, disappears when his gaze falls on Carrara's bunch of papers and he leaves the bar stool to install himself on the chair opposite the commissario.

"Shiho is in charge of my schedule, my finances, and my lifestyle," Seiya calmly explains, proving all the people who called him hot-headed liars by adopting a conciliatory approach and staying perfectly composed and reasonable. "She even sorts out all the arrangements for my roles. My life would be extremely chaotic without her."

"I see," Carrara comments with growing interest, indicating he has seen that Seiya Kou can very well control himself when he wants to. Carrara's intentionally inappropriate behaviour, added to his blunder in Hino's dressing room when Shinichi questioned Hino about her slow clock, strengthen Shinichi's suspicion that the sergeants Carrara talked with in the concert hall have provided Carrara with useful bits of information about the singer which Carrara, as "time was running short," has yet to share with Shinichi. It must have been some damning evidence against Seiya in favour of Carrara's theory, maybe the witness account of Nadia Gorowitz or of someone else (someone of the technical staff?) who understands Japanese and who has overheard Seiya and Tenoh's quarrel. Carrara most probably read the files his sergeants handed him while Shinichi was distracted by Ran's account of Seiya's flirt with Alessandra DiGiorgio, the usher at the left entrance.

"Well," Seiya Kou directs his civil smile away from Carrara, towards Shinichi and back to Carrara again. "What would you like to know?"

"Just the happenings of tonight from your point of view," Carrara replies while Shinichi only contemplates the singer silently, taking note of his fearless eyes and the friendly mocking smile on his lips, an innate attitude to challenge and to rebel, which must have been one of the reasons why Tenoh Haruka—a natural leader—couldn't abide him.

"Since Haruka was still alive during the second interval, I think you're interested in the time between eight and half-past eight, Haruka's usual thirty-minute delay before the last act of the opera," Seiya begins. "I had a drink with Makoto before I returned to my dressing room. But I have very good ears and can tell you for sure that no one was in the corridor before Gentile knocked at Haruka's dressing room and begged Haruka to go on stage."

Jumping energetically to his feet, he proceeds to the fridge and looks inquisitively into it.

"I see Makoto has already emptied our bottle of sherry," he sighs in mock disappointment, giving Shinichi a cordial smile. "It's a shame since we could have shared the rest of it." Turning to Ai, he adds: "Although I could open a new bottle... You don't mind, do you? Rei is going to drive us."

"And who is going to drive us from her place to ours after she goes home?" She threateningly knits her brows.

"You, of course," he grins, unimpressed by her severe look and her frown.

"No," she brushes him off, sounding almost as bossy as she was when she watched over the Professor's diet even though there is a teasing edge in her voice. "You told me you already had a glass with Kino. That's enough."

"I only had one sip," Seiya protests, "Makoto knocked back the rest of my glass."

"Signora Kino can apparently tolerate a lot of alcohol," Carrara observes with a grin.

"She can drink anyone under the table," Seiya admits in genuine admiration while Ai explains: "She has an unbelievably high level of alcohol dehydrogenase. Not even Haruka was a match for her."

"So you returned to your dressing room immediately after talking to Kino?" Shinichi asks the singer, turning the conversation back to the case.

"Yes," Seiya absently replies. "Champagne, water, or orange juice? Or sherry? I can't drink with you, though."

"Water, please, if you don't have stinger. Do you know what time it was?"

Wrapping her hands around her glass, Ai shoots Shinichi a warning glance before she nonchalantly takes a sip of her water.

"No stinger," she tells him with a smile. "The only alcohol we have here is sherry. That's the only wine you could tolerate although you never really liked it, if my memory serves me correctly."

"No, I don't know what time it was," Seiya says, pouring each of them a glass of mineral water after asking Carrara whether he preferred water or orange juice. "I don't wear a watch. But I think it was only a few minutes before I heard Gentile's steps in the corridor."

"You can hear his steps in the corridor through the closed door of your dressing room?" Shinichi raises a skeptical brow. Tenoh's dressing room is in the middle of the corridor directly under the staircase to Hino's room while Seiya's is at the end of the corridor. Luigi Gentile, who most probably came from the stage since it wouldn't make sense for him to leave the opera house through the main entrance and walk around the house to enter it again through the exit just to get to the backstage area, couldn't have passed Seiya's dressing room on his way.

"I assure you I can hear the sounds in the corridor very clearly when I'm in the café or in my dressing room even when the doors are closed," Seiya Kou flashes both Carrara and Shinichi an ironic smile. "Having excellent ears is sometimes a curse. I can also hear everything people say when they gossip about me even when I try not to pay attention to their ridiculous theories." Addressing Carrara, he wickedly adds: "I even heard someone saying I should change my gender to suit Shiho's preference. But Shiho and Haruka were only friends. Just because they went out to enjoy a cup of coffee with each other from time to time doesn't mean that they were lovers, you know."

"But you two are?" Carrara asks him and Ai, trying the direct approach. "Why did Signora Tenoh object to your relationship if she didn't have any right to interfere with it?"

"As a good friend of Shiho's, she objected to us sharing an apartment because she said it would ruin Shiho's reputation," Seiya evasively answers, eyes flashing with anger at Carrara's question although his voice is steady and his demeanour perfectly calm.

"I'm fine with it, though," Ai shrugs. "Living in Venice alone would be much too expensive, and we like to keep each other company."

Contrary to her unemotional words, her face clouds over with sorrow so heartrending that Carrara averts his eyes and helplessly pretends to study his documents, apparently regretting his behaviour from earlier. And Shinichi himself, taken aback by the expression of longing with which she gazed at Seiya's face, has already been fooled by it when Seiya Kou's reaction gives her away. Bewildered by her reply, the singer has thrown her an inquiring glance, which she has answered with a mischievous and reassuring smile, the same she had given Edogawa Conan before stepping on stage four years ago. Seeing that smile again, Shinichi almost expects her to wink and to whisper "Let's win this game" with the only difference that, this time, she won't be saying it to him.

He can still clearly remember their way home that autumn night four years ago, when the two of them were walking in front of Sonoko and Ran, who were still marvelling at Shiratori-sensei's dress, the Chinese lanterns, and the carefully tended lawn. Learn to feign sleep and you will be a brilliant actress, he remembers telling her, indicating the trophy in the Professor's hand. Their group had won, as expected, even though they had agreed not to do anything too scandalous for the sake of the children. Just a few facial expressions and little gestures which revealed a sense of closeness and belonging like holding hands or sharing the same cup of coffee. Those little things and the perfectly natural air with which she tucked his shirt into his trousers for him were enough to bring the right word to mind.

"That was a piece of cake," she had said, glowing with pride about their overwhelming victory without allowing herself to revel in it. "People always see what they want to see. Pretending to be lovers is easy. Being lovers and hiding it, on the other hand, would be a real challenge."

One probably gets accustomed to the intimacy, she had thought aloud. Taking so many things between themselves for granted, lovers don't notice that they are standing too close, touching each other too often, doing things they usually don't do to a normal friend even when they desperately try to hide their relationship from their surroundings.

The sight of the corner of a napkin in the right pocket of Seiya's trousers prompts Shinichi to make a quick movement of his hand as if he were chasing away a fly, knocking over Ai's glass in the process. With a single movement whose surprising swiftness reminds Shinichi of Tenoh's impressively fast scales during the first act of the opera, Seiya Kou's hand shoots forward to catch the glass before it falls over although a bit of the water still spills on Ai's dress.

Frowning at the water stain on her breast in annoyance (she has always been exceedingly particular about her spotless appearance), Ai automatically puts her hand into Seiya's pocket and pulls out his napkin to wipe herself while the singer, realizing Shinichi's intentions, throws him a half-admiring and half-amused glance, hiding his lower face behind his hand as if he were trying to suppress his laughter.

Wrong reaction, Shinichi thinks. Things would have been as plain as day if he had wiped her with his napkin or if she had taken the napkin and he had been taken aback by her gesture. Her reaction was the worst possible. Seiya's laugh, however, is something which doesn't fit into either of Shinichi's theories.

So what are they? Friends pretending to be lovers or lovers pretending to be friends? Seiya's masquerade is apparently the first and hers is obviously the latter, as if they were, for some obscure reason, acting out two different phrases because they have opened two different envelopes by accident. The only thing Shinichi knows for sure is that both of them are excellent actors giving an outstanding performance of the roles they have chosen, playing a game they are most probably going to win in the end. And even though this is not at all about winning or losing to Shinichi, it strangely infuriates him that he can't tell which type of charade they are playing, as if for him, this question is one of tremendous importance.

x.

* * *

 

**Commissario Lele Carrara, the only...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Commissaro Lele Carrara, the only dispassionate observer of the scene, is immensely intrigued by the unexpected love triangle, which has just manifested itself in front of his eyes. Scolding himself for not noticing it earlier, he grudgingly admits that he ought to have known it the moment he saw how Shinichi Kudo reacted to her name. Despite joking about Kudo looking as if he was about to faint and wondering whether she had been his "secretary" as well, Lele didn't really give his own theory a second thought at that time. When she came out of Seiya Kou's dressing room, however, he instantly knew that there must have been some kind of history between them, something emotionally intense which ended badly, because there is no way a person like Shinichi Kudo would lose his cool at the sight of an old friend. She, too, has demonstratively tried to keep him at a distance, snubbing him mercilessly while stealing furtive glances at his face whenever he was distracted by her boyfriend, and Lele is positive that—if it weren't for Seiya Kou and himself—their reunion would have been quite different, even though he can't really imagine how it would have been.

"Sorry about that," Shinichi Kudo hypocritically apologizes to her, indicating her glass with a wry smile. "I thought I saw a fly."

"Never mind. You've always had two left hands and poor eyesight," she nonchalantly waves his apology away with an insult which almost resembles an endearment if one doesn't pay attention to her words but only to her tone.

From the look of things, the two of them must have been either lovers or at least entangled in a complicated platonic romance, which abruptly ended when she went abroad four years ago. Apparently, the letters got lost, life happened, and now, after successfully moving on, they run into each other again while holidaying in Venice with their respective current partners. What a fateful reunion!

There also seem to be lingering feelings beneath the resentment, Lele thinks, and if they were both unattached, he would bet that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow at the latest they would be waking up in the same hotel room. But as things are, his lovely fiancée (the dark-haired girl is most probably his fiancée or girlfriend although, for an unknown reason, the detective denies that he was the one who gave her the ring she wore on the wrong hand) and her excessively attractive boyfriend (whom she undeniably loves, judging from the expression in her eyes whenever she looks at him), added to the fact that Shinichi Kudo won't be staying in Venice for long, are formidable obstacles to their happy ending.

"But it's lucky that you knew exactly where to find a napkin," the detective remarks in a sharp voice, ignoring both Seiya Kou's and Lele's presence. Without doubt, he is the type of man who forgets himself when he is really jealous.

"I knew where to find it because it was me who put it in there," she dryly replies while Seiya Kou, in a well-meant attempt to take the innuendo out of her sentence, lightly adds: "Shiho is even responsible for the contents of my pockets" before he loses control of himself and bursts out laughing at the unintentional drollness of his own comment.

Oddly enough, the singer is the most difficult to make out although, at first glance, he seemed like the most open and approachable of the three, Lele observes. Seiya Kou has been perfectly amiable throughout the whole affair, showing no sign of jealousy or possessiveness. On the contrary, he seems to acknowledge the past between Shinichi Kudo and his girlfriend with the same laid-back attitude with which he deals with the knowledge that he is currently suspected of murder.

"What's so funny?" she inquiringly raises her brow at him.

"Sorry," he gently says, lips curved up in a mocking smile, winking at her with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

It's difficult to tell whether he is really innocent or simply so ruthless and self-assured that he doesn't fear either Lele or Kudo although it is clearly evident that, despite his lack of jealousy, he is passionately devoted to her. If it weren't for Shinichi Kudo's trap and the reaction of the girl, he would undoubtedly have kept up his elaborate pretense; and by the end of the interrogation, Lele would most probably have believed his tall story that they are only good friends sharing an apartment while enjoying a harmless little flirt, passing her off as his secretary, whom he is unhappily in love with, to keep his female fans away. He has hidden their relationship well behind many layers of make-believe and lies, and Lele hazily wonders whether he would stop at murder to protect her.

x.

Inwardly, Shiho is incandescent with rage at each of the three men, starting from the impertinent commissario (who dared to openly insult her and whose presence prevents her from behaving like herself) to Kudo (who—despite all the things they went through with each other before, at, and on Pandora's Box—didn't even bat an eyelid when he unscrupulously spilled water all over her to satisfy his curiosity) to Seiya, the traitor, who apparently changed sides the moment she took his napkin and who is now cheekily grinning at her, enjoying himself at her expense. Why he couldn't even pretend to be angered at Kudo's gesture is beyond her comprehension.

Apparently, all three of them have set themselves the goal of antagonizing her tonight. And since she can't do much about the first two in this situation, Shiho decides to take out her anger on the last one, flashing him an ominous look which tells him very clearly that she has taken notice of his betrayal and that he is going to suffer the consequences for his insolent behaviour later because there is no way this won't have any repercussions.

Well, at least that's what Seiya thinks what Shiho is thinking. And since Seiya trusts his ability to read her thoughts or at least most of them, he winces at all the things she might do to him if he doesn't manage to appease her before they are home. The last time he got under her skin by giving a few of her APAH painkillers to Rei-chan she had been furious, launching into a tirade about the dangers of using an unknown drug personalized for someone else's requirements and about how he should never, ever, rummage through her medicine chest again, much less steal her painkillers without asking her beforehand. And when he rebelliously dismissed it with a grin and readily promised her to behave himself without really meaning it, she punished him by mixing something into his coffee that knocked him out for a whole day, causing him to miss a rehearsal and fight sleep during his own performance. A woman who would go as far as ruining his concert for a practical joke is an accident waiting to happen, Taiki has told him. And while Seiya believes that Taiki, once again, is absolutely right (just like Taiki was probably right when he foresaw that she would wrap Seiya around her little finger and break his heart some day), Seiya can't deny that her short-tempered and difficult character is one of the many things about her which fascinate him.

Letting his eyes roam over the table, Seiya wonders why they all seem so subdued and why he seems the only one who found the incident with the water hilarious. It was such a great idea in its simplicity, and the promptness with which Kudo put his thought into action drew Seiya's admiration since none of them had anticipated it. Seiya has always appreciated a truly formidable opponent and, while he naturally prefers winning, doesn't mind losing to such an opponent once in a while. If she weren't such a bad loser, Shiho would have acknowledged that she has been thoroughly defeated by her friend and his accurate judgment of her fastidious character, utilizing her almost neurotic sense of order (something Seiya is still fighting against after all these years) to throw her off balance and induce her to give up her pretense. But the most funny thing about Kudo's wonderful test was that, in the end, when it comes to the nature of Seiya and Shiho's relationship, it actually didn't prove anything.

The only thing it really proved was that Shiho knew he had a napkin, Seiya thinks, wondering what type of woman Kudo knows. The women Kudo knows are probably extremely well-behaved, distant, or shy towards their male friends, the very opposite to the brazen women Seiya knows, as Seiya can immediately think of at least three or four other women who would also have borrowed his napkin even though there hasn't been anything between him and them. Minako-chan, for example, would have done it without further ado or—and this is even more likely—ask him to wipe her instead. Rei-chan, Odango, and Shizuka-san certainly wouldn't have hesitated to take a napkin out of his pocket either, and it's a mystery to Seiya why Kudo believes that Shiho wouldn't take a napkin out of the pocket of a good friend. In Seiya's eyes, Shiho has never been the shy type although, now that Seiya is thinking about it, he must admit that she did have an odd aversion to touching other people when they first met.

"Why do you keep a napkin in your pocket?" Kudo asks him.

"I don't know," he answers truthfully. "Shiho put it into my pocket."

Very funny, says Kudo's glare. If you don't want to tell me the truth, I'm going to find it out on my own.

But it is the honest truth, Seiya thinks. Shiho and he often sneak random things into each other's pockets and like to steal each other's stuff (with the exception of APAH and her precious necklace from Kudo, the only two things of hers he is not allowed to touch). Seiya knows very well that his talent of bringing out her childish side and enjoying himself almost anywhere at any time is one of the few reasons why Shiho is still living with him in spite of his incurable recklessness and his ability to irk her to no end (which usually happens when he is enjoying himself too much at her expense or when he decides to play a prank on someone and chooses her as his next victim). Tonight he has enjoyed himself, too, as their little charade in front of Carrara has allowed him to tease her endlessly by treating her like his little princess, something she would never let him do to her without making a sarcastic remark when they are alone.

"What did you do before talking to Signora Kino?" Carrara asks, giving him a grave and fatherly look as if he feels sorry for this youthful delinquent he will have to arrest soon. Dream on, dear commissario, Seiya thinks, dream on.

"I visited Rei in her dressing room. We didn't talk for long, though," he says, suppressing a yawn because he wants to appear perfectly polite and amiable tonight, showing himself from his best side to Shiho's best friend and unrequited love from four years ago.

"Do you know what time it was?" Kudo asks, fixing him with steely greyish blue eyes, which seem to peer into the very depth of his soul.

"About a quarter past eight," he replies, not at all intimidated by the skeptical looks both Carrara and Kudo are giving him. It's not his fault if they can't believe the truth, Seiya thinks in amusement—disregarding the thought that, in a way, it is his fault—and he is the last person interested in assisting them with their investigation.

"How come you know the time if you don't wear a watch?" Kudo coolly asks, making Seiya wonder whether the sleuth is always so hostile towards a suspect or whether he has developed a personal aversion against him. If Shiho hadn't shown him her cage-shaped pendant and told him about Kudo's total indifference to her charms (It seemed they were in the same boat, she had said, because her detective had a childhood crush he had wanted to marry since elementary school), Seiya would have been under the impression that Kudo is jealous of him.

"The clock on Rei's dressing room table said it was eight fifteen," Seiya shrugs, dismissing the idea that Kudo might be in love with her as absurd since it doesn't make sense to him. After all, the absent-minded private eye failed to fetch her and another friend of his from Pandora's Box No. 1 (Seiya has assigned numbers to the ship, the cabin, and the computer, as he found the fact that they all shared the same name confusing!) while going for a walk with his childhood love, according to both Haruka-san and Ami-chan. And while Seiya can understand that one forgets the time when one is reunited with the girl one has been in love with for one's whole life, he doubts that Kudo had any romantic feelings for Shiho (or Haibara, as Kudo always called her), as—in a life and death situation—he obviously forgot about her because of another girl.

In all probability, Haruka-san was wrong when she claimed that there had been strong feelings on both sides, and Kudo only dislikes the thought that Shiho seems to be cohabiting with a jerk who takes advantage of the fact that she can't afford an apartment in Venice and misuses her situation to corrupt her innocence because Kudo, as a good friend of hers, feels responsible for her well-being.

Satisfied with the conclusion, Seiya turns on his charm and directs his nicest smile at the detective, who, being the stern and mistrustful type, doesn't return it.

"You didn't look at the clock in the café when you were having a drink with Kino. Why did you look at the clock in Hino's dressing room?" Kudo asks, trying to trap him with the reversed order, which Seiya, once again, finds vaguely amusing.

"I looked at it because I wondered when Haruka would stop reading and finally decide to grace the audience with her presence," he flippantly answers, taking a sip of his water after secretly giving Shiho, who is watching him with worried eyes, another suggestive wink, one of the type that never fails to make her blush although, this time, he can't tell whether she is blushing because she is embarrassed or because she is angry at him. Pulling himself together, Seiya tells himself to hold on a bit longer so that she doesn't need to be ashamed of her "employer" even though the memory of her groaning "That's the stupidest excuse you could have come up with because now people will think that you're sleeping with me and paying me!" threatens to crack him up. She had been fretting for days after Makoto-chan and Minako-chan's surprise visit until he managed to soothe her with the philosophy that reputation was "an idle and most false imposition" and that life was actually much more pleasant when you were no longer concerned about it.

"So she read a lot?" Kudo asks curtly, in a voice which could freeze the Sahara. Perhaps he is still irked about the lost letters and feels like taking his anger out on somebody? It's a pity that Seiya can't tell Kudo that Shiho hadn't only written those letters but also sent them long mails every week without knowing that the person who answered them was neither her beloved Professor Agasa nor (her equally beloved!) Kudo Shinichi.

"Compulsively," Seiya unscrupulously lies since they clearly don't believe him when he tells the truth. "I know only few people who are as well-read as she was."

One of Seiya's many talents—no one needs to tell Seiya Kou that he has a myriad of talents since self-confidence is the last thing he lacks—is his ability to slip into any role and make even himself believe anything he says, no matter how outrageous the lie. He seldom makes use of this ability when he is not in front of the camera or onstage. However, he belongs to the people who show grace under pressure and fight tedium with mischief. And while he has been under intense pressure during the past hours, this interrogation feels like an anticlimax to the evening and has begun to bore him.

"Did you have to read a lot at Infinity?" Kudo asks Shiho in passing, in the same casual tone in which he mentioned Stinger a few minutes ago. Although he is as affable as a brick, the man would make a great actor if only he had the aspiration, Seiya distractedly thinks while wishing for Rei-chan to call him at once so that Shiho and he can finally excuse themselves and go home.

"Only the literature students," she replies with a tiny smile, apparently still impressed at how Kudo has found out about Stinger and Infinity during such a short time (or didn't he discover it tonight but remembered it because he read about it in Pandora's Box No. 2?). Noticing in dismay that she can't take her eyes off Kudo's face, Seiya inwardly sighs and decides to distract himself from the painful reality that she still has feelings for Kudo by imagining her naked.

"Since Haruka was an athlete, no one forced her to read anything," he can hear her voice telling Kudo before he feels her foot kicking at his shin and meets her warning glare, which startles him out of his pleasant day dream.

"And you were an athlete at Infinity, too?" Kudo gives him an innocent—though still glacial—smile and adds in a poor attempt to distract him from the deception: "You look like one, and you have great reflexes."

"No, I wasn't," Seiya replies, slightly irked at the realization that both Kudo and Carrara assume that he is a vain idiot. Deciding to fit perfectly into the pigeonhole they have designed for him, he cheerily laughs, giving a brilliant performance of the good-humoured airhead they both want him to be: "I'm a natural athlete, actually. But since I knew I'd never have passed their IQ test, I never dared to apply for Infinity."

"I didn't know one could apply for Infinity!" Kudo leans towards Shiho, eyes bright with curiosity and excitement. "Wasn't it an exclusive academy at which you had to wear black school uniforms and drink stinger during your black-tie parties and which you could only attend if you belonged to the few chosen ones?" They shamelessly lock eyes with each other for a moment, ignoring their surroundings completely.

No, one had to wear starched white shirts and drink mineral water during the striped-bow-tie parties and it was boring as hell, Seiya thinks, no longer inclined to ask Kudo to share a bottle of sherry with him.

"You could always apply for it," Shiho shoots him another worried and warning glance, "although the final decision usually rested with Professor Tomoe. Haruka was actually one of the people who applied for it... And the school uniforms weren't black! Professor Tomoe strongly objected to that. They were green and brown."

"Green and brown," Seiya remembers the sharp, slightly broken voice of Professor Tomoe at his ear while gazing curiously after the retreating figure of the girl who, at that time, wasn't more to him than a white lab coat in a rather dubious-looking black crowd. "The colours of the trees and the earth and the last thing that stayed in or flew out of the jar. Will you join us and wear it for me? Or do you think that black would be a more suitable colour for you at Infinity?"

x.

* * *

 

A/N: If you're wondering why Shinichi thought of pinning Shiho against the wall, it was an in-joke because Shinichi behaved pretty violently towards a grown-up Ai in OVA 9.


	8. Part Two: There are few people...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

 **There are few people**...

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

 

There are few people in the world who can baffle Shinichi and give him headaches. Ai, much to his annoyance, can do it well enough to give him a migraine. Her friend or boyfriend (or something in between?) is the same, changing like a chameleon from one minute to the next for no apparent reason. Within less than half an hour, Seiya Kou has acted out the accessible celebrity when he introduced himself, the perfect gentleman when he opened the door for his secretary, the teasing lover when he pulled out Ai's chair and indirectly asked her for a kiss, the judicious diplomat when he decided to keep his (undoubtedly quick) temper in check despite Carrara's rudeness, the innocent and supportive suspect while answering to Carrara's inquiries—a role he kept even when Shinichi implied that he had doubts about Seiya's claim to have visited Hino before talking to Kino. Without attempting to correct Shinichi's reversed order of the two visits, the singer has retained his air of nonchalance, answering all of Shinichi's questions patiently without the slightest hint of tension. As Shinichi already suspected, Seiya Kou can slip into any role with ease; and in view of his wide-eyed innocence, a less experienced investigator would have been convinced that the events of tonight were not in the least related to him.

Acutely sensitized to crime and mystery, however, Shinichi can detect a certain watchfulness (a state of heightened awareness?) beneath Seiya's untroubled demeanour and a deliberate provocation in his eyes whenever they meet Shinichi's and Carrara's gazes. Smiling pleasantly at Shinichi with the ghost of a mocking grin in his eyes and on his lips, bursting into laughter at his own jokes, and giving Ai unmistakably suggestive winks, which madden Shinichi more than a raised middle finger towards himself would have done, Seiya seems as certain of his victory over Shinichi and the police as a meerkat that has just escaped an eagle's attack and is now sitting in its snug little burrow, sticking its puckish head out of the hole to watch the bird circling over its abode.

Every few seconds Shinichi can catch Ai stealing curious, worried glances at Seiya's face, a behaviour which mystifies him as much as her special attachment to the singer. Even though they haven't known each other for longer than a few minutes, Seiya has already managed to push all of Shinichi's buttons with his incessant flirting (does he really have to do it so blatantly even during an interrogation?), his irritating look of sardonic amusement, his finely modulated tone of voice (whose ironic undertone makes Shinichi's blood boil) and his infuriatingly angelic smile. It is easy for Shinichi to understand why Tenoh Haruka couldn't abide the roguish brat, and when he noticed Ai kicking her so-called employer under the table (couldn't they find a better excuse for living under the same roof than passing her off as his secretary?), Shinichi could only suppress his grin with difficulty.

Would she have kicked him if they were really lovers just because he was devouring her with his eyes? Certainly not. They are friends pretending to be lovers, as he thought, because if they were really lovers, there would be no reason for Seiya Kou to continue denying their relationship after she has spoilt their charade by taking his napkin. As expected, her acting skills have considerably improved over the years, and if it hadn't been for Seiya, who keeps throwing her resigned and longing glances as if he were suffering from an unrequited love, Shinichi would have been completely fooled by her acting. Admittedly, their indisputable closeness and their outrageous flirting still shock Shinichi somewhat, but their romantic friendship is easier for him to accept than their love affair would have been.

Hence his foul mood has considerably improved when he forces a smile at the singer and—despite knowing from Kino that Seiya went to Juuban High School with her, Aino Minako, and Chiba Usagi—asks: "And you were an athlete at Infinity, too? You look like one, and you have great reflexes."

It wasn't even a lie, as Seiya does have the appearance of an athlete or—to be precise—of a dancer, nothing unnatural for a singer and actor who regularly appears in musicals. However, Shinichi's benevolent tone and the reserve in his smile have not been lost on anyone but Seiya at the table, judging from Carrara's skeptical sidelong glance and the expression of disbelief flitting across Ai's face.

"No, I wasn't," Seiya laughs. "I'm a natural athlete, actually. But since I knew I'd never have passed their IQ test, I never dared to apply for Infinity."

He looked and sounded so perfectly honest that Shinichi couldn't detect even the slightest indication of a lie and might have accepted his assertion at face value if it hadn't been for the exasperated expression in Ai's eyes. But after seeing her reaction, Shinichi is certain that Seiya knows about Infinity's link to the Organization (a fact Ai is also aware of) and that he only pretended to be clueless to mock Shinichi or to tease Ai.

"I didn't know one could apply for Infinity," Shinichi leans towards her with interest. "Wasn't it an exclusive academy at which you had to wear black school uniforms and drink stinger during your black-tie parties and which you could only attend if you belonged to the few chosen ones?" Expectantly fixing her unreadable teal eyes in a vain attempt to find the answer to his indirect questions, Shinichi can see in his peripheral vision that neither Carrara nor Seiya show any sign of recognition at his allusion to the Organization. Given the circumstances, however, he suspects that only Carrara's ignorance is genuine while Seiya's is feigned.

For a moment, Ai only meets his gaze in silence before an appreciative smile flickers across her face and she turns to Seiya Kou again. However, the singer seems lost in thought and only looks up from his glass when she has already averted her eyes.

"You could always apply for it," she tells Shinichi while throwing Seiya another worried glance, "although the final decision usually rested with Professor Tomoe. Haruka was actually one of the people who applied for it... And the school uniforms weren't black! Professor Tomoe strongly objected to that. They were green and brown."

Apparently, the mad professor was one of the few codename members who rebelled against the Organization's dress code and put his own code of ethics over the Organization's rules, an attitude which must have been a thorn in the side of the Organization's seven highest members, and Shinichi wonders why Professor Tomoe alias Stinger was not eliminated immediately after he burned his academy down.

"Were you and Tenoh classmates?" Shinichi asks Ai, deciding to postpone their talk about Infinity until later when they are alone.

"No, we weren't," she answers, walking over to the bar to hang Seiya's wet napkin on a hook next to the coffee machine, "but of course I knew her because she was very famous at school." Turning to Seiya Kou, she asks in a deadpan voice "Or should I try to auction it off instead? I wonder how much your fans will pay me if I can convince them that it was once in your trouser pocket."

There it is again, that teasing voice Shinichi still knows so well from her time as Haibara Ai. In a way, she has always been a casual flirt who carelessly broke the hearts of the little boys who took her teasing serious. This time, however, Seiya only gives her a faraway smile and half-heartedly remarks "You're such a greedy girl" before he takes a sip of his water with an almost melancholic expression in his eyes. His mood seems to have changed after Shinichi mentioned Infinity although, in view of his acting skills, Shinichi can't tell whether his sadness is acted or real.

"One of us needs to pay attention to the practical aspects of life, after all," Ai smiles before she returns to the table, brushing gently against Seiya's arm when she passes him, and fixes her troubled gaze on his face again, effortlessly swapping her role of the secret lover for the role of the caring wife.

As if it wanted to rescue Shinichi from their mawkish little performance, Carrara's phone suddenly rings. It is "Andrea", the medical examiner, as Shinichi can deduce from the various snippets of the conversation he can make out although Carrara has left the table for the bar. Judging from Carrara's alarmed expression, Andrea doesn't bring good news. An unexpected problem has occurred in the meantime because someone (an influential friend of Tenoh?) "opposes to the autopsy" and has called Andrea personally to ask him "whether an autopsy is really unavoidable," threatening him with "legal proceedings" if he doesn't "put off" the autopsy until they have talked to "Gallo", who is apparently Carrara's "superior".

"So, what are you going to do now?" Carrara gravely asks and—as the incorruptible Andrea replies that he will perform the autopsy immediately if Carrara sends him Tenoh's corpse before Gallo can interfere—ends the phone call with a grim but satisfied "Thank you".

Meanwhile, both Seiya Kou and Ai have been following Carrara's phone call with unconcealed interest even though neither of them betray any visible signs of emotion at the outcome of the talk. Once again Shinichi can't help but wonder why they've gone to such great length to look and behave like a couple while denying it at the same time. Even now their fingers are touching slightly while they both are cupping their respective glasses. And they both turn their faces inquiringly towards Shinichi when they notice his gaze on them as if they had already rehearsed this scene.

"Please excuse me for a minute," Carrara throws Shinichi a meaningful glance and quickly leaves the café. Through the door Carrara has left ajar, Shinichi can hear his steps gradually recede into the distance as he walks in the direction of the stage and opens the door to Tenoh's dressing room, where, in all probability, the sullen attendants in white are still guarding Tenoh's corpse.

"So Tenoh was a friend of yours?" Shinichi asks in Japanese, addressing Ai, who is now leisurely sipping at her water as if the three of them were old classmates who had got together in this café for a chat and a drink. There are innumerable other questions he would have preferred to ask. But, as he doesn't know how much she has told Seiya Kou about her past and whether the singer can be trusted, he decides to save his questions for later when they are alone.

"Sort of," she murmurs a non-committal reply, regarding Seiya, who has begun to tap a rhythm on his glass, with a rare genuine smile. In the course of time, Shinichi has grown used to Haibara Ai's face and even the annoyed expression that frequently flitted across it, the slight furrow between her brows and the way she could frown, wrinkle her nose, and curl her lips at the same time. Yet nothing is more startling than the sudden change in her features when she smiles. And it strikes him as unbelievable that she can still smile like that although a close friend of hers just died.

First of all, the Ai Shinichi knew didn't belong to the class of people who can easily recover from the death of someone close to them. Moreover, "sort of" is certainly not the answer he would have expected from her if Tenoh Haruka and she had been friends. Apparently, her feelings for Tenoh are considerably cooler than her frequent meetings with Tenoh would suggest; and it is probably reasonable to assume that, as a companion, she prefers Seiya Kou, for whom she has an inexplicable weakness.

"Was Tenoh a friend of yours, too?" Shinichi asks Seiya.

"Sort of," the singer gives him a very fine smile, watching him attentively with remarkably intelligent eyes. He has imitated Ai's tone of voice perfectly, copying her pronunciation and her personal inflection with all its subtle nuances and barely discernible pauses. Perplexed at why Seiya would suddenly copy her reply, Shinichi would have believed that the singer was showing off his acting skills if it had not seemed perfectly natural, more habitual than deliberate.

"Kino said Tenoh complained of headaches this evening," Shinichi mentions in passing.

"Ah, did she," Seiya comments flatly while Ai visibly pales. Before his eyes, Shinichi can see Seiya Kou generously handing Tenoh Haruka a handful of APAH capsules with the words that "Shiho-chan"—Shinichi has no doubt that the cheeky brat calls her "Shiho-chan"—prefers them to normal painkillers because her migraine would always miraculously disappear after taking them. Perhaps the irresponsible fool didn't even plan to kill her in the first place, and the "quarrel" was only a reparable tiff between two acquaintances who were too alike to tolerate each other.

"Did you give her the painkillers?" Shinichi asks Seiya directly since the singer is either deliberately obtuse or really too dense for nuances. Undecided about whether he should call them "APAH" (maybe Ai doesn't want Seiya to know their name), "Miyano-san's painkillers" (that would be too formal), "Shiho-san's painkillers" (it still sounds weird to his ears) or "Miyano's painkillers" (he has an irrational aversion to calling Ai "Miyano Shiho" in her presence), Shinichi makes a mental note to refer to APAH as "the painkillers" in the future.

Listening to the sound of footsteps and foreign voices echoing through the deserted corridor with interest (it seems Carrara is on the way back to the café while the attendants are noisily carting the stretcher with Tenoh's corpse out of the dressing room), Seiya takes a brief moment to contemplate his answer.

"No," he says levelly, "I didn't visit her after I returned. We met for the last time before the first act in the corridor."

He looks and sounds completely sincere, solemnly fastening his gaze on Shinichi's eyes. The puzzling guy goes through a personality switch every few minutes, and Shinichi has a strong suspicion that he is such a convincing actor because he can completely forget himself in a role.

"What about meeting up afterwards to talk?" Shinichi suggests, smiling at Ai with a slight nod in the direction of the door, where Carrara can reappear at any moment. "There are bars open until two a.m."

"But tomorrow is the opening night of _The Phantom of the Opera_ ," she stubbornly replies, glancing at Carrara, who has just come through the door, and continues in Italian: "As I said, Seiya really needs a good night's sleep for once."

In a normal situation, Shinichi would have played along and adjusted himself to their game despite its silliness. One usually doesn't ask a woman to go out at night for a drink in front of her boyfriend without including him in the invitation. And if he had asked the question in Italian, she wouldn't have been able to accept it in front of Carrara since they need to keep up appearances. But her deliberate switching to Italian—which made the meaning of his question evident to Carrara—and Seiya's gracious "Since we've already stayed here for so long, I don't think the two hours really matter" (what idiot would invite himself to a meeting of old friends who obviously prefer to talk in private?) cause something in Shinichi to snap.

"I'm sure you need as much sleep as you can get to be in shape for the opening night," he uncaringly puts a damper on Seiya's enthusiasm and then turns to Ai: "But since that doesn't have anything to do with you, let's have a drink together somewhere afterwards to catch up."

x.

It seems in the few minutes Lele was absent, Shinichi Kudo has already begun to hit on the girl regardless of her boyfriend. The young detective is more passionate and irrational than he looks, Lele observes in surprise, and like many other people of his generation, Shinichi Kudo obviously suffers from the need of chasing after instant gratification.

A moment of tense silence descends upon the three of them after Kudo's outrageous proposal (all of them know he didn't mean to have a drink in the literal sense of word when he asked her to go out for a drink with him alone!) while Lele unobtrusively settles himself on his chair for fear of disturbing this intriguing love drama, whose end he cannot guess. The gloves are off, thrown by Shinichi Kudo with unexpected vigour and force, and Lele vaguely wonders whether Seiya Kou will punch Kudo now for his attempt at snatching his lover away from him right in front of his eyes. His famous hot-headedness cannot have been only a rumour, and his lean figure and staggeringly fast reflexes indicate a born fighter who is not accustomed to lose.

To Lele's stupefied amazement, however, the singer doesn't even look irritated although he has dropped his mischievous and cheery manner for an attitude which is more mature and serious. His girlfriend is visibly confused, as one would expect, for Kudo's overzealous behaviour has put her into a rather precarious position.

"Well," Seiya Kou breaks the silence with a thoughtful glance at his girlfriend. "If you two would rather do the catching up between yourselves, just give me a call and I'll fetch you from wherever you want after you're done."

How incredibly foolish, Lele thinks, moved by his unconditional love for her and his implicit (though probably misplaced) trust. What a catastrophically stupid thing to say to a fickle woman who is torn between the two men she loves. Women like her only feel desirable when they are with a man who can convince them through intense jealousy that he is madly in love with her. And as much as Lele likes Seiya Kou for his good humour and his saintlike patience, Lele doubts that the naive singer will manage to keep her for longer than a few days in view of Shinichi Kudo's fighting spirit and passion.

"Never mind," Kudo says. "You need your sleep for the opening night. I'm going to bring her home."

Completely preoccupied with the fascinating love triangle at the table, Lele has almost forgotten that Shinichi Kudo's fiancée must be sleeping in their shared hotel room at the moment. The chances of finding a room in Venice at this hour is practically nonexistent. And since it is out of the question that Shinichi Kudo would take his lost love to his hotel and introduce her to his fiancée (now Lele finally understands why Kudo was so eager to get rid of the dark-haired girl in the first place!), the detective only meant to have a drink with Shiho Miyano, an innocent face-to-face conversation without either of their present partners disturbing them.

And yet, now that Lele is thinking about it, he realizes Venice has an abundance of dark lanes and private places; and young lovers probably don't mind the weather if they are really desperate...

"No, I'm actually tired," she replies, evading Kudo's burning gaze with obvious bewilderment in her eyes. "I'd rather go to bed as soon as possible. Let's postpone it until another time."

Let's postpone it, she said... While the girl naturally feels sorry for her boyfriend for the public humiliation Kudo callously puts him through, she obviously cannot bring herself to turn down Shinichi Kudo's offer in a more decisive fashion. The detective belongs to the few lucky perfect people in the world who don't seem to have any visible flaws although, in Lele's opinion, he needs to learn how to maintain a certain standard of personal conduct. One doesn't try to hook up with a woman in the presence of her boyfriend even when the two of them are hiding their relationship from the public. Even if she was the love of his life, a decent man would have been more patient and waited until he can talk to her alone.

"If my memory serves me right, you were always a night owl," Shinichi Kudo remarks, not even trying to conceal the fact that they were once lovers anymore.

"I still am," she declares, turning her face towards her boyfriend with a mischievous gleam in her eyes, "but you know... I'd rather be a night owl at home."

x.

From the faces of the other people at the table, Seiya draws the inference that Shiho's last remark has thrown both of them off balance, confusing commissario Carrara because he obviously expected her to run off with Kudo and shocking Kudo because he hasn't expected such an explicit statement.

That realization wouldn't pose a problem for Seiya at all if she hadn't thrown him off balance, too... Why she had to do this, he doesn't know. Haven't they worked out their roles together down to the smallest detail? He is supposed to be pursuing her with little to no success while she is supposed to be his good friend whom he adores and passes off as his secretary as an excuse for living with her in his apartment; and they've played this charade together so often before that they can do it in their sleep by now. A little bit of playful flirting (a sort of charade in a charade) matches their roles because of his scandalous reputation and the phenomenally stupid excuse he gave Minako-chan when Shiho—unaware of Minako-chan and Makoto-chan's surprise visit—sleepily walked out of his bedroom in her skimpy transparent nightdress, but certainly not more than that. So why has she changed the rules and is now pretending to be pursuing him instead?

Keep up the pretense no matter what, was what she said... Perhaps she has altered the rules because she has noticed that he has grown tired of this eternal pretending and would love to drop the whole game of hide-and-seek altogether if it weren't for her. At any rate, Shiho must have a sensible reason for acting like she does, just like he has his reasons for adding slight changes to his part. Despite all her worried glances, she has tried to adjust herself to his acting. Hence—despite his confusion—Seiya is dutifully keeping up the pretense, trying to censor even the thoughts which don't match his role, and furiously blushes at her like a guy who has been unhappily pining after her for years would do after hearing her innuendo.

Meeting Kudo's enraged and distressed gaze with renewed confidence, Seiya lets a victorious little smirk flicker across his face before he exchanges it for a dreamy and idiotically happy expression he decides to keep for a while. This is how his role would doubtlessly react, Seiya decides. And while Seiya finds the smirk rather petty and pities Kudo for having to deal with the annoying brat (being innately chivalrous despite his occasional fits of mischievousness, Seiya really can't stand guys who would regularly sneak a woman unwelcome kisses she has to fight off!), Seiya thinks it is only fair because, if he had been unhappily pining after Shiho as his role does, Kudo's behaviour tonight would have hurt him as well.

Before he stepped out of his dressing room to face Kudo and the commissario, Seiya has resolved to make a few changes to his role by being infuriatingly inconsistent and constantly changing his personality in a subtle way, just enough to conceal the truth but not so much that the perplexed commissario will consider locking him up in a mental hospital. At this very moment, he decides to switch again and to play the role of the innocent suspect who is confident that his beloved secretary and friend will never leave him for her rude and smug one-time love. And as always, Seiya Kou can almost shut out his true personality when he is absorbed in an important part...

x.

* * *

 

**At least that is...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

At least that is one of the many altered versions of the truth Seiya keeps telling himself in his head, another simplified version which fits the present role he is trying to believe in while waiting here for Rei-chan in the so-called "café" (Makoto-chan was the one who elevated the ugliest dressing room of the opera house to this undeservedly high status) and letting Carrara and Kudo question him about tonight without revealing anything, consciously or subconsciously. But now that he has acted out the role of the unbalanced suspect well enough to confuse Kudo, who must be thinking that he is sick in the head, Seiya grants himself a second break (the first one was after the incident with the napkin, which amused him so much that he almost forgot how serious this situation was), a short breather in which he can be himself again and assess the situation.

Things are progressing even better than Seiya has hoped because, owing to Kudo's overprotective behaviour (Kudo is the type of man that cares so much for the well-being of his friends that he can appear extremely possessive to outsiders), commissario Carrara has mistakenly thought the three of them are in a love triangle. Since the dear commissario has such a romantic mind (appearances can be so deceiving, Seiya would never have guessed!), he will be absorbed in the eternal triangle that his own brain has made up until Rei-chan returns and rescues Shiho and Seiya from the interrogation.

Kudo, on the other hand, is evidently so intrigued by Seiya and Shiho's little charade (Shiho told Seiya once that Kudo is obsessed with mysteries in general) that he fails to see the possibility that it might be a running joke neither Seiya nor Shiho has ever taken seriously (which is why their acting is so woefully poor that Akane-san would fire both of them if they were starring in one of her movies), and that the mystery Kudo wants to solve tonight doesn't have anything to do with their game of hide-and-seek at all.

Actually, it will be game over in a few hours, anyway—and with a corpse whose cause of death has not even been determined yet, Seiya really has other problems to worry about than unwelcome publicity or Shizuka-san's wrath. The only reason why he pretends to care about the transparent little charade is to convince Kudo and commissario Carrara that it is extremely important. From his time as a teen idol, Seiya has learned that to convince your audience, you need to believe in your role.

The problem Seiya is confronted with tonight is a completely different one. Innately a realist despite his optimism bordering on insanity, as Shiho always calls it, Seiya knows that deceiving the police cannot be as easy as it is usually depicted in mystery novels, just as deceiving the legendary Kudo Shinichi, who has practically brought down the Black Organization by himself, is a task Haruka-san thought sheer impossible. But then again, realist or not, Seiya has always liked a real challenge... And even though he is not at all a bad loser in other situations, losing in this situation is not even an option.

From past experience, Seiya knows that the best way to make people overlook a glaring detail is to direct their attention to another one, to keep their minds occupied with the mice on the kitchen counter to prevent them from paying attention to the elephant in the living room. At least this interrogation has calmed him down somewhat. In fact, it almost bored him until Kudo mentioned the painkillers and Seiya suddenly got an idea of how to give this mess a perfect cleanup without the silly mocking glances which—harmless as they are—don't only drive Kudo but also Shiho mad. Actually, she has just slammed her heel on Seiya toes and kicked him again.

Naturally, Shiho doesn't appreciate that he behaves like a wayward kid during the very first meeting with her best friend and unrequited love. If truth be told, Seiya has never wanted to alienate Kudo Shinichi out of all people, knowing that Kudo has saved Shiho's life many times and that Shiho admires her brilliant detective so much that she has put him on a pedestal Seiya can never touch. However, throwing Kudo challenging glances and ruffling his feathers a bit seemed like a good idea at first since it was the only way Seiya could distract an astute observer like Kudo from noticing the obvious.

Stealing another quick glance at Kudo's face, Seiya thinks to himself that he has never expected a man like Kudo to be so hot-tempered. Shiho has described Kudo to Seiya as a guy who can keep his cool in any situation and who never lets anything or anyone distract him from a case. But distracting Kudo has been so easy for Seiya that Seiya almost wonders whether the Kudo Shinichi that Shiho told him about and the Kudo Shinichi who is sitting next to him are the same person. It's only natural that Kudo would rather be alone with Shiho, Seiya thinks. Kudo must be dying to know about what happened at Pandora's Box three years ago, as Hattori Heiji lost his life during that case, which was probably the only one Kudo couldn't solve. And yet, Kudo's dislike for Seiya is so immediate and intense (exactly like Haruka-san's hate at first sight when she ran into Seiya in Michiru-sama's dressing room) that Seiya could almost believe his first mistaken impression that his challenging glances aren't the only reason for Kudo's anger and that Kudo might be jealous.

No way, Seiya thinks, dismissing his theory at once. Although Seiya now believes that Kudo only didn't fetch her from Pandora's Box (No. 1) because of a misunderstanding (communication is such a tricky thing!) or because he got lost during the storm that night (protective as he is, the sleuth is really not the type to forget two friends of his on a ship stacked with time bombs while taking the only motorboat they had to meet up with a girl), Seiya doubts that Kudo is in love with her since Shiho doesn't know anything about it even though she is usually very sensitive.

Of course there is still the possibility that Kudo was struck by love at first sight when he saw her as a grown-up. After all, the Haibara Ai Kudo knew and the Haibara Ai Seiya found at Pandora's Box was a ten-year-old girl...

Very unlikely, Seiya thinks with another glance at Kudo, registering the latter's piercing eyes, determined lips, sharp profile, and unmovable figure fixed in a perfect sitting posture. The obsessive sleuth can probably only fall in love with a sphinx whose mystery he cannot solve. Come to think of it, Kudo has not even taken his childhood friend he supposedly loved so much with him to the investigation.

In any case, Seiya can't afford to underestimate Kudo, who—despite his overprotectiveness—seems to have an extremely intuitive and sharp mind (in contrast to the commissario, on whom all of Seiya's subtle acting has been lost). Since Seiya doesn't want to make things easy for Kudo by fitting into a pattern, Seiya decides that it is time to change his approach.

The best way to hide a needle is to sneak it into a needle box full of other needles similar to it, Seiya once discovered when Taiki, Yaten, and he played a prank on their foster mother. Hence Seiya decides to act on his instinct and to try out the other option he discovered when Kudo mentioned the painkillers: to stop the switching act and lie randomly as he did when Kudo asked him about Infinity and Haruka-san's reading habit, and wait patiently for the results of the autopsy to see whether things will turn out the way he has imagined...

x.

The singer's little smirk—mocking, victorious, and self-satisfied—has not been lost on Shinichi despite his momentary speechless incredulity at Ai's unexpected snub, which felt like a slap in the face. Within the split of a second, the smirk, which was personally directed at Shinichi, was gone, replaced by an expression of such unbelievably naive contentment that Shinichi almost admires Seiya for pulling it off.

To be honest, Shinichi knows he has brought it upon himself when he slighted Seiya by excluding him from the invitation and when he asked Ai for the second time for a private talk although she had already declined. Since he did it in Italian (but dammit, she was the one who switched to Italian in the first place so that he had to tag along!), she didn't really have the option of accepting his offer without dumping her alleged boyfriend for him in front of Carrara, a gesture which wouldn't have made sense at all in view of their elaborate little charade. Even after her polite refusal, he couldn't refrain from making the idiotic night-owl remark, which, in this kind of situation, was misleading enough to establish Carrara's wild fantasy that Ai was his "secretary" before she went to Venice—an idea so utterly ridiculous that it would have made him laugh in a different situation.

Tonight, however, laughing is the last thing he wants to do since he would rather whisk her away from this tiny claustrophobic wannabe café and demand of her a satisfactory explanation for this mess and the odd behaviour of her deranged employer. Apart from feeling like a fool because, within only a few minutes, he has been transformed from her old friend and classmate to her ridiculously possessive ex-boyfriend in Carrara's (and in Seiya's?) eyes, Shinichi is beside himself, as he has expected that she would finally shed light on the events of that night, which has been haunting him for years, instead of playing childish games with him.

"What about visiting us before the musical?" she suggests in a cordial and matter-of-fact voice. "For lunch or for tea, depending on when you can make it. Just come before three in the afternoon because Seiya has to leave for La Fenice at four p.m. You can bring Mori too, if she is here in Venice. By the way, how is she?"

Their eyes meet across the table, whereupon Shinichi's anger subsides. He can't detect the slightest indication of a taunt in her face but only bewilderment, probably because she doesn't understand why all of them have been staring at her as if she has said something unusual. Ai didn't intend to make fun of him when she cracked the tasteless joke. In fact, now it seems to Shinichi as if it was only an unfortunate misunderstanding or a blunder she made while she was too immersed in her role.

"She is fine," Shinichi calmly responds. "I'd like to come over for tea, but alone so that she can spend a bit of time with Sonoko, who is studying art history here."

"See you tomorrow afternoon then," Seiya Kou remarks, this time without the slightest hint of provocation in his eyes. For unknown reason, he has just returned to the unaffected and genial person who threw his keys at Hino half an hour ago, and Shinichi doesn't need much effort to force the corners of his lips up in response. Either the guy is really suffering from a multiple-personality disorder or he is a bit sadistic and enjoys messing with other people's mind, Shinichi thinks to himself. Since neither explanation satisfies him, as there is no way Ai could have shared the apartment with such a creep for years, Shinichi is positive that Seiya's odd behaviour tonight must have something to do with the mystery.

"This afternoon," Carrara pedantically interjects. "Since it's already past midnight, I'd like to ask you the last questions before we all can go home."

x.

The curious love triangle is, much to Lele's surprise and disappointment, gradually evolving into a perfectly amiable ménage à trois. Although Lele can't say how Shiho Miyano did it, he applauds her for her ability to keep both men at her feet and to force them to cooperate with her to reach an understanding. The two young men are doing their best to make peace with each other as well, smiling pleasantly at each other as if both of them have come to the conclusion that she won't let go of either of them since she likes both.

Also, it seems that Lele has misinterpreted her relationship to Shinichi Kudo, which is even more complex than Lele thought. Apparently, Kudo abandoned her for his pretty fiancée ("Mori" must be the name of the dark-haired girl) three to four years ago, whereupon she, deserted and heartbroken, went abroad and (either out of revenge or to forget Kudo) threw herself at Seiya Kou. Even though it looks like Shinichi Kudo regrets his decision now and would like to start anew, she is smart enough to stay with her nice celebrity boyfriend while leaving her options open by tentatively renewing her connection to Kudo. A greedy woman, just as Seiya Kou said when she made the joke about auctioning off his napkin. Although he knows his girlfriend is the greedy type, he still loves her so much that he happily lets his rival enter her life again, the pitiful lovesick idiot! And that with all the other women swooning over him! Nobody would have expected such a pathetic loser after seeing his face, Lele thinks to himself. Appearances are surely deceiving.

"Did you talk to someone else before visiting Signora Hino? Signor Gentile told us you two talked with each other in the foyer," he asks Seiya Kou, whereupon Shinichi Kudo adds: "Since he said it was before he went to Tenoh the second time, it must have been between eight and eight fifteen."

"At the bar," the singer admits. "I only asked Gentile whether he knew where Shiho was since I couldn't find her in the hall."

"But why did you ask him instead of searching for her in your dressing room?" Shinichi Kudo queries. "Since the portiere told us you came back through the exit, I thought you had passed the backstage area before entering the concert hall."

"I did pass the backstage area. But I thought that she was waiting for me in the hall or in the foyer."

"We wanted to meet in the hall after the second act," Shiho Miyano interjects. "But since Seiya was late and the noise at the bar gave me headaches, I decided to wait for him in his dressing room instead."

"Signor Gentile told us he accompanied you to your dressing room," Lele remarks.

"He insisted on doing it." She shrugs, giving him a dark sidelong glance. She belongs to the few women in the world who still look sympathetic and charming despite the bored and gloomy expression on her face, a face so beguiling when she smiles that Lele can't help wondering uneasily whether the unprincipled young men nowadays would gladly die and kill for her if she wanted to. Isn't that what probably happened tonight? She could have twisted Haruka Tenoh around her little finger and unintentionally played games with the pianist just as she is doing now with Shinichi Kudo and Seiya Kou. But while the singer seems not averse to sharing her with a rival like Kudo, seeing her messing around with his archenemy (and a woman to boot!) in front of his eyes must have made him furious...

"So you asked Signor Gentile where Signora Miyano was because you couldn't find her in the hall?" Lele turns to Seiya Kou. "Why did you think that he would know her whereabouts?"

"He has a crush on her," the singer replies as if it was something everyone at the table must have noticed. "Since he never takes his eyes off her, I thought he would know whether she was in front of the main entrance or in my dressing room." Giving his girlfriend a boyish grin, he adds, "I don't like running around without a purpose because I'm a lazy person."

"Is that the reason why he doesn't like you?" Lele asks. Seiya Kou must have noticed by now that it is futile to hide his relationship with her from the police, and it saddens Lele that he cannot think of another reason why he should continue to hide something so obvious unless it was really the motive for the murder.

"Maybe," the singer says thoughtfully, finally giving up the pretense. "But I don't enjoy seeing his mournful face around either, so we're even, I'd guess."

"Alessandra DiGiorgio, the usher at the left entrance, told us you gave her an autograph on her left arm and talked with her from five past eight to ten past eight before talking to Gentile," Shinichi Kudo changes the topic. The detective has a fairly good memory for names and facts he only heard once although he—deliberately or accidentally?—tends to make mistakes when it comes to the time and the order of the happenings. Throwing a glance at his papers, Lele reassures himself that his excellent memory serves him correctly because Alessandra DiGiorgio told his sergeants that Seiya Kou gave her the autograph and stayed with her from six past eight to sixteen past eight _after_ talking to the artistic director.

"Oh, I almost forgot about that," Seiya Kou says dismissively, "I don't know when it was, but I think it was _after_ I talked to Gentile."

"Chiba said you talked to the usher first," Shinichi Kudo obstinately insists.

"Mamoru was on the phone with his wife," Seiya Kou says, apparently puzzled at Kudo's pedantry, "and whenever he is on the phone with her, he doesn't pay much attention to the things around him. But why are you interested in such an unimportant detail?"

"Do you know each other through his wife?" Shinichi Kudo asks, ignoring Seiya Kou's question. "He told us you're one of her best friends."

The interrogation, which almost reminds Lele of a pleasant chat now that Shinichi Kudo has eased up and relaxed, has turned to the subject of Mamoru Chiba's wife, the woman who was once in a romantic relationship with Seiya Kou before her marriage to Chiba, according to Shinichi Kudo's theory. Kudo apparently thinks that the scandal and the mysterious "misunderstanding" between Haruka Tenoh, Mamoru Chiba, and Seiya Kou has something to do with this case. One thing Lele must admit is that, despite being at times pedantic and impetuous, Shinichi Kudo is extremely motivated and thorough.

"Yes," the singer answers with a quick reassuring glance at his girlfriend. "We were classmates and stayed in touch after finishing school." Perceiving a note of defensiveness in his voice, Lele deduces in amusement that Shiho Miyano is not only a greedy but also a jealous girl.

"And Kaioh Michiru and Tenoh Haruka?" Shinichi Kudo asks. "Chiba told us Tenoh was his wife's friend as well."

"She has a lot of friends," Seiya Kou smiles. He seems to like talking about Chiba's wife even in front of his girlfriend, which is odd if the affair had ended so badly as Lele thought it had.

At this moment, Seiya Kou's mobile phone rings, and after glancing at the display, on which Lele can only discern Japanese symbols he cannot read, the singer turns to his girlfriend and remarks, "It's Rei."

x.

"Well, have you brought everyone home?" asks Seiya-kun. His tantalizing voice, despite its typical teasing edge, sounds a tiny bit less cheery than usual, a detail no one but a person who has been watching him for years would be able to detect.

"Just come out. I'm waiting for you two outside," Rei casually remarks, wondering whether her voice betrays any anxiety or whether she sounds fairly normal. Her voice seems weak and slightly husky in her ears. But knowing him, he will think it's nothing unusual after belting out Haruka-san's "opera" for the whole evening.

"Great, we'll come out immediately," he laughs, sounding so carefree that she almost winces at the huge gulf between her and his acting skills, and ends the call before she can reply anything.

Leaning back in her seat, Rei sighs at the memory of how she hastily jumped to conclusions when the perverted little sleuth trapped her with the slow clock. Shocked by the realization that only Seiya-kun could have put it back, she completely missed the fact that, if he had only visited her to use her as she thought, he would have grabbed the chance when everyone went onstage to run upstairs and put it forward.

Did she say something stupid tonight during the interrogation, Rei wonders, cursing herself for her volatile temperament, which she can't control. She also went over the top, gossiped about her best friends and almost told the sleuth about the romantic friendship between Seiya-kun and Usagi, which was luckily brought to a stop by Haruka-san's interference. But since it happened years ago and is no longer of any importance, she didn't think that it could affect Commissario Carrara's opinion about Seiya-kun in any way. Almost everybody had one or two unhappy romances in the course of their life without turning into a murderer, right?

Calling to mind the time nine years ago when her friends and she herself belonged to the wide-eyed teens who were fantasizing about Three Lights day and night, Rei realizes how juvenile all of them must have looked in Haruka-san's eyes. And yet, Ami-chan and Rei were still more mature than Mako-chan, Mina-chan, and Usagi were. While Rei didn't really like the way how Haruka-san butted in and put a stop to Usagi and Seiya-kun's blossoming romance, Rei shared Haruka-san's viewpoint that it would have been a disaster if the two of them had started something with each other, as Usagi would never have forgiven herself for abandoning Mamoru-san. After realizing that Mamoru-san and she had only misunderstood each other due to their lack of communication, Usagi would most probably have left Seiya-kun and returned to her one true love. Due to Haruka-san's interference, the tentative little romance ended up as a giant scandal, which shook Mamoru-san out of the delusion that he had to focus on his studies for the future of his girlfriend, and they made up and finally had their happily-ever-after, which would have been perfect if it hadn't been for Seiya-kun, who was completely heartbroken.

As heartbroken as Seiya Kou can be, Rei thinks with a sardonic smirk, since even his sadness was productive and improved his geographic knowledge (he travelled a lot afterwards) and his drumming skills (Yaten-kun told her he was terrific, an unusual compliment from Yaten-kun's mouth). He even went to their wedding two years later with a smile and joked that he was glad to come because it was his only chance to kiss the bride. All's well that ends well, he airily said, winking at Rei, whom he considered a fellow sufferer after she told him she once went out with Mamoru-san...

Although Rei knew that Seiya-kun was desperately in love with Usagi, Rei also knew perfectly well that he would get over her some day, something Mamoru-san, who is much more fragile than he looks, would never have managed. Seiya-kun has always been extremely independent and resilient, impossible to break and, as Rei once believed, impossible to hold on to. Even though Shiho-san has surprised Rei by successfully chaining him to her for almost four years, Rei can appease her vanity with the thought that she was right when it came to Seiya-kun's ability to recover, as Seiya-kun obviously got over his hopeless infatuation with Usagi when he eloped with his "Shiho" to Venice after knowing her for only a few days...

He has never addressed any girl without a suffix before, Rei thinks, wondering why they're trying to hide their relationship, which is so obvious that it has become a burden for all their friends to pretend that there is nothing but friendship between the two of them. The moment she heard the news from Mina-chan, she couldn't really believe it. Seiya-kun was living with a strawberry blonde, whom he tried to pass off as his secretary, Mina-chan had said, although it was obvious to anyone who had eyes that they were having an affair. But when Haruka-san and Michiru-san admitted that they had known about the thing for a while because it started at their place, Rei knew that it must be the truth—and the realization that he had rejected all the beautiful girls who had been pursuing him for years to elope with a stranger he only knew for a few days completely threw her...

This wouldn't be the first time she is the third party in a love triangle, and Rei no longer wonders why she always falls in love with men who can't reciprocate her feelings. It is a subconscious fear of commitment, Ami-chan once suggested, as if Rei's subconscious could have known in advance who would never fall in love with her in return!

Freezing in the cold November wind, Rei pulls her woolly hat over her ears and readjusts her shawl.

Anyway, Seiya-kun has always been much too bohemian and wild for the dependent and helpless Usagi, who needs a gentler, more down-to-earth and pragmatic person to take care of her. In return, Usagi's bubbly and bright personality balances out Mamoru-san's gloom and seriousness. Hence, even though Mamoru-san was Rei's first love and it did hurt her somewhat to give him up, Rei was glad that she could make Usagi happy with her little sacrifice when all was said and done. For Rei, fairness, loyalty, and friendship have always been more important than something as trifling as love.

Tapping her fingers impatiently at the steering wheel, Rei rolls her eyes in exasperation and wonders why it takes Seiya-kun and Shiho-san so long. Hopefully Commissario Carrara and the perverted little sleuth won't force them to go through all the unnecessary bureaucratic nonsense like proving their alibis and identifying the corpse.

Thinking back to the picturesque sight of Haruka-san's peaceful face, her soft blonde hair, and her dark tailcoat against the pale ochre carpet, Hino Rei coolly asks herself the question whether she still feels any sorrow for the body in the dressing room and, after a minute of serious contemplation, ascertains that she doesn't feel it.

No, Rei decides. She feels no pity for her, none at all! Because even with her ambiguous attitude towards men and love, when it comes to the few principles she really believes in, Hino Rei is simple and straightforward.

Corny as it sounds, there are only three things which really mean something to Rei and which she now recites like a mantra in her mind: A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye. All for one and one for all. And traitors deserve to die.

x.


	9. Part Two: From the expression...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**From the expression…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

From the expression on Kudo's face whenever Seiya opens his mouth to say a word, Shiho infers that Kudo is only holding back for her sake although he would rather drag his number one suspect by his ponytail out of the opera house and dump him into the Canal instead.

Which is actually a brilliant idea, she realizes, feeling almost tempted to try it out. At a certain point in the interrogation (when the commissario asked Seiya what he had been doing before chatting with Kino-san?), the real Seiya abandoned her and disappeared, leaving her with a stranger she doesn't know.

"Rei is waiting for us outside," the stranger declares, flashing a polite smile to everyone at the table. "I'm very sorry, but we have to go home now."

How wonderfully natural, warm, and well-behaved he sounds! But "I'm very sorry" is something the real Seiya would never have said, much less in this earnest tone and in a situation in which the phrase "I'm very sorry" doesn't mean anything. Actually, it would have been more like Seiya if he had uttered it with a rebellious smile and in a mocking tone showing her that he absolutely didn't mean it.

Although Shiho did notice that her self-appointed "employer" (sometimes even she can't tell whether Seiya's naiveté and occasional spells of idiocy are real or only acted!) appeared distracted ever since they left his dressing room, the overly chivalrous way in which he opened the door for her and pulled out her chair gave her the mistaken impression that he was only teasing her as he always does. Even his question whether he was allowed to share a bottle of sherry with Kudo didn't seem out of character for him even though she knows he never drinks more than one glass. His joke about her being responsible for the contents of his pockets and his laughter afterwards were in character for him as well. The same applies to his unapologetic "Sorry" and the impish little wink which accompanied it...

As a matter of fact, Shiho only discovered that something was definitely wrong with Seiya when she noticed that his body language seemed different from usual and spotted the peculiar glimmer in his eyes. Moreover, his sudden and uncharacteristic eagerness to please Kudo and the commissario began to unsettle her. Knowing Seiya's tendency to regress to the mental age of three or four whenever he is bored, she strongly suspected that he was up to mischief and about to play a prank on her again. But it wasn't until she caught him staring at her in ardent admiration, greedily ogling her with a meek and longing expression reminding her vaguely of Gentile's, that she realized what he was doing.

Flashing a winning smile at Kudo one moment (Aino-san's smile?) and shooting him challenging glances (Hino-san's glances!) the next, giving Shiho outrageous winks (Tenoh-san's winks!) one moment and coyly blushing at her (Odango's expression when she saw him?) the next, watching Kudo with intense curiosity one moment (he didn't have to act for this!) and gazing melancholically into his glass of water (Mizuno-san's gaze!) the next... For a reason she can't guess, Seiya has been acting out an unstable and shady character who changes his personality from one moment to the next without caring in the least about the fact that he is fueling the commissario's suspicion against him.

Whenever he is at his best, Seiya completely becomes his role after a few minutes of practice, and Shiho has no doubt that he has even synchronized his thoughts with his role by now and momentarily turned into whatever he wanted to act out. Although the changes in Seiya's facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice are too subtle to make an impression on the dense commissario, Kudo is apparently just as disturbed by Seiya as Shiho herself would have been if she hadn't been living with Seiya for years and known that he is sensible despite his secretive aura and his sporadic fits of unparalleled idiocy (by her definition!) or unmatched genius (by his own definition!).

"Just a few questions before you go," Kudo demands. "Do you know where Tenoh usually kept her keys?"

"She used to hang her bunch of keys on the peg behind the door," Seiya replies with a civil smile. "I know it because I always do the same with mine and she once accused me of imitating her."

Although Shiho knows it must have been a lie, as Seiya always leaves the key to his dressing room in the keyhole or sneaks it into her handbag, he looked and sounded so sincere that she can't help wondering for a moment whether the anecdote about Tenoh-san's petty accusation was true.

"We only found the key to her dressing room on the peg," Kudo continues with a perceptive glance at her. "Do you know where she usually kept the keys to her apartment?"

"No, I don't." 

"I heard her privacy was very important to her," Kudo thoughtfully adds.

"That's true," Seiya, who is still borrowing Taiki-san's smile, agrees.

"Which is why it's really odd that she left her bag here in the café instead of taking it with her to the dressing room," Kudo continues. "Do you know when and why she left her bag here?"

Through a thick fog, Shiho can see herself kicking the bag on the floor aside after shutting the door to the café...

"Haruka must have forgotten it here after having tea with me," she replies in a steady voice although her headaches have returned with a vengeance. "We were here together during the first interval until she had to go onstage for the second act."

"You can ask us your questions another time," Seiya breaks in, rises from the table, takes her arm, and leads her towards the coat rack next to the bar while she follows him in a daze. "We really need a few hours of sleep, and Rei must already be freezing outside."

Throwing him a wondering glance, as he has just let go of her as though touching her was unpleasant, Shiho realizes that he looks irritated and bored now, posing with his back propped against the bar and displaying an aloof and snobbish attitude he could only have copied from his oldest brother. In another situation, she would have found his transformation from Taiki Kou to Yaten Kou fascinating to watch; but in this situation, she would do anything to get the real Seiya back since the last person she needs with her now is Yaten-san.

"What does SB mean?" Kudo asks all of a sudden, taking her by surprise, as she has not expected him to know about Stinger's abbreviations.

"Super Bowl, of course, or stolen base," Seiya deadpans before she can reply. Laughing in spite of her headaches, she turns to him in relief, expecting to see the real Seiya in his eyes again. However, he still looks slightly detached when he meets her gaze, as if he is still playing a role or is trying to snap out of it but can't.

"And M?" Kudo continues.

"Me?" Seiya suggests.

There have been other moments during which her (usually sane) "employer" appeared so much like himself that she mistakenly thought he had finally reverted to normal, Shiho recalls in disappointment. Only the real Seiya would have been cheeky enough to mimic her or tap a rhythm on his glass. Once, during a walk on the beach in front of Tenoh-san's house, he told her that he never had much trouble to get into his roles because one could find almost any character trait of someone else in oneself if one only looked closely enough. Nevertheless—while his multi-faceted personality has intrigued her since the very first moment they met—Seiya has never seemed to her like a duplicitous person...

"I only have a last question for now," Kudo remarks, getting up from the table with a start. "Gentile said you came through the main entrance during the second interval. Why did you go out for the second time?"

"He didn't come back through the main entrance," she tells Kudo while gesturing for Seiya to take her handbag from the coat rack. "Gentile's memory is usually not very reliable."

"The portiere said he went out again during the second interval," Kudo testily counters, "and Kino told us she saw him going out just when Tenoh opened the door to the café and asked her for a cup of water. If he didn't return through the main entrance to leave through the exit again, three people's memories had been playing a prank on them."

"I did go out again after I returned," Seiya admits while helping her into her coat. "Shiho got a migraine before the first act. And since I couldn't find her favourite painkillers at home, I decided to buy some headache pills from the drugstore for her instead."

Slipping into his jacket with his usual self-assured smile on his lips, he continues to provoke Kudo and the commissario by adding, "Unfortunately the drugstores were all closed by the time I came. Otherwise I'd have purchased a mysterious, undetectable poison for Haruka as a gift."

This time, the joke didn't seem very out of character, and Shiho would only have thought that Seiya was slightly more irreverent and impertinent than usual if it hadn't been for the change in his posture (she can't tell who he is impersonating this time) and his unfamiliarly cool gaze.

"We still need your contact address!" Kudo gloomily fishes a notebook and a pen out of his pocket. For a fleeting nostalgic moment, Shiho is struck by the memory of how she used to snatch the notebook out of his hand or peer over his shoulder. Thanks to the person who impersonated the Professor and Kudo and stole all her letters and her mails, she must have been dead to them for all these years.

In reality, she has written the Professor every week and Kudo once or twice a month (more would have seemed inappropriate considering that he would have had to justify the regular mails from another woman to Mori-san). Until the quarrel between Seiya and Tenoh-san tonight, she had been under the illusion that Kudo and she were still close friends even though the bond had loosened with time. During the four years in Venice, she has often tried to imagine how their reunion after her return to Beika would be. In her thoughts, however, they always met differently, in another setting and another plot. Whatever she expected it to be, she never thought that it would be in the backstage area of La Fenice and that he out of all people would be interrogating her.

Alhough it could have been worse, she thinks, sneaking another furtive glance at Kudo's face, which now looks distinctly sharper and more serious than she remembers. She likes his present face even more than the old one, she decides, as the seriousness doesn't take anything away from its unobtrusive attractiveness while the sharpness only seems to emphasize its classical, almost flawless beauty.

Noticing that he is being watched, Kudo abruptly directs his gaze from Seiya to her and gives her a cold, inquisitive glare.

"Please write down your contact address and phone numbers for me here," he orders Seiya in a voice which could have cut through a diamond. His mood has visibly worsened after Seiya and she got up from their chairs, most probably because the prospect of having to wait until tomorrow before he can talk to them again is irking him.

As expected, he is still the mystery-obsessed Sherlock she knew, the clueless consulting detective who unknowingly "confessed" to her four years ago...

_What are you going to do after taking the cure?_ she remembers asking him the night she finished the antidote, knowing in advance what he was going to say even though she couldn't extinguish the small treacherous glimmer of hope that his answer might be unexpected like his cage-shaped pendant, which didn't contain a bird as she had thought.

Bringing down the Organization, securing Pandora's Box, proposing to Ran, he had answered after a moment of hesitation. Actually, he had already confessed to Ran long ago so that they were sort of having a long-distance relationship now. He would have told her about it earlier if talking about it hadn't seemed so awkward to him.

_Well then_ , she had said, realizing that she was right when she suspected that he had never looked at the pendant closely enough to know what it really was. _I'll give you the permanent antidote right now if you can delay all those things for a few hours and stay here with me while I'm watching Charade..._

Ignoring Kudo's notebook, Seiya turns to her expectantly, whereupon she, miming the perfect secretary, takes a card out of her handbag and hands it Kudo. Not at all amused by their little charade, Kudo snatches the card out of her hand with an exasperated sigh and inspects it without looking at her.

Apparently, Kudo has been holding a grudge against her over all these years, which is only natural considering her sudden disappearance and her lack of communication. In his view, she has simply abandoned the Professor and the Detective Boys without as much as a sign that she is still alive. To make matters worse, he must be thinking she is now working as a secretary—a job which doesn't suit her in the least—just because she is besotted with a popular (and stark raving mad!) celebrity, who is only using her to fight off his troublesome groupies.

"But why did you return to the opera house before going to the drugstore?" the commissario asks the celebrity, whose schedule she does not organize. The only paperwork she does is separating their bills and letters from their spam (she considers all sorts of advertisement, love letters, and fan post to Seiya spam!) and ripping the latter apart.

"I don't know," Seiya cheerfully replies. "It was a spontaneous decision." Wrapping Shiho's scarf around her neck with Kaioh-san's artistic finesse, he flippantly continues, "If you can find anything which proves that Haruka didn't die naturally, I'm looking forward to continue this talk over a cup of tea. But if you don't, I hope you will leave us alone this season. Our apartment is too much of a mess to welcome any visitors apart from our closest friends, and we don't have much time for housework since I need to focus on the musical."

"I see," commissario Carrara gravely mutters while following them to the door. Seeing the self-important and sorrowful expression on his face, Shiho doesn't need Kudo's deduction skills to know with certainty that the commissario expects to haul Seiya off to jail before the end of the month at the latest.

"You know what I've been wondering all this time?" She cast her darkest glance at the commissario while buttoning up her trench coat. "I was alone and without an alibi. So why are you so fixated on Seiya and don't even think of questioning me?"

It's ironic, really, she thinks to herself while rubbing her sore temples, for she is actually the only person in the backstage area with means, motive, and opportunity.

x.

* * *

 

**Of course he has...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Of course he has never dared to suspect anybody, Lele hastily reassures the girl. Her "employer" (she blushes with anger at the term) has only been questioned so thoroughly because he happened to be in the backstage area at the time of Signora Tenoh's death. If anyone could help them shed light on Signora Tenoh's mysterious and untimely demise, that person would be him. She, on the other hand, had been sleeping for the whole time so that Lele didn't expect her to have anything to say about the tragedy which occurred tonight.

Visibly uninterested in Lele's justifications, she has turned her attention to Shinichi Kudo again, who is silently staring at her with a look of astonishment and disbelief. The detective is evidently in distress at the discovery that she is deeply in love with the man she is living with—an undeniable fact, as she has just incriminated herself in an attempt to divert Lele's suspicion from the singer.

"Wait a moment," Kudo exclaims before she can leave, decisively pulls her back by her wrist and—much to Lele's surprise—offers her a few blue-white capsules similar to those he took before the interrogations when he asked Lele for a glass of water. They are strong painkillers against the migraine, the detective claims, directing his piercing gaze at her boyfriend, who returns his glare with a most charming smile.

It appears that the painkillers are an obscure traditional Asian wonder-drug Lele has never heard about. Shiho Miyano, to all appearances, has already seen them or has even used them before. Flashing Kudo a fleeting smile, she wordlessly accepts the capsules, shoves two into her mouth, and then downs the glass of water her boyfriend has just poured her, drinking up the water in one single gulp.

"Thanks," she tells Kudo with a sigh of relief, distractedly clinging at her boyfriend's arm. "I thought they would never stop."

Exasperated with her little gesture, Kudo sighs and turns away from her so abruptly that his elbow knocks over Lele's empty water glass.

"I see you've become all fingers and thumbs with age," she jokes, handing Seiya Kou her glass while the latter is watching Shinichi Kudo perceptively, with a puzzled expression. Laid-back and unconventional as he is, it must be difficult for him to comprehend Kudo's jealousy and possessiveness.

"Just like you've become rather dependent and forgetful," the detective rejoins, whereupon she only blinks at him, incredulous.

It is highly improbable that Kudo can share her love with another man if he can't even bear the sight of them linking arms, a casual and completely harmless gesture in the bohemian world of acting. Notwithstanding his honest attempt at befriending her boyfriend as she wishes, Kudo doesn't seem to Lele like a person who can endure a ménage à trois for long without getting hurt.

"I'm sorry to pry into your private affairs, but I think it's also in your best interest to unravel the mystery surrounding Signora Tenoh's death as soon as possible." Lele turns to Seiya Kou, who is already on the way to the door. "Rumours around you spread like wild fire here in Venice. And it will be hard to convince people that there isn't a grain of truth in them if you can't provide proof of your innocence, you know?"

"People will always talk," the singer responds, opens the door for Shiho Miyano, and quickly removes a long black hair of his from her beige trench coat when she passes him. "I've learned not to pay much attention to anything they say. Apart from that, my reputation isn't exactly what one can call spotless. Rumours won't be able to destroy my career as they would destroy Mamoru's or Rei's." Closely following his girlfriend into the corridor, he leaves the open door to Shinichi Kudo, who goes after the couple so swiftly that he simply lets the door fall shut in front of Lele's face.

The detective hasn't been himself ever since the incident with the napkin, which must still be tormenting him so much that he can't concentrate. It's no wonder that he is pained by the thought of her sneaking a napkin into the singer's trouser pockets. Especially since he must know her as a playful lover who is—and Lele is sure of that after seeing her laugh—very passionate despite her calm outward appearance...

Like an epiphany, the thought suddenly crosses Lele's mind that Seiya Kou's napkin might be an interesting piece of evidence Lele can't officially impound before getting the results of the autopsy proving that Haruka Tenoh didn't die a natural death. Turning on his heels to secretly confiscate the napkin, which must still be hanging on the hook next to the coffee machine, Lele discovers in alarm that it has disappeared. Seiya Kou, who was standing at the coat rack (and who was the only person in the vicinity of the hook), must have retrieved it unnoticed when Lele was distracted by Shinichi Kudo and the girl.

The singer is a quick-witted young man, who is less harmless than he looks, Lele thinks, classifying his number one suspect under the type of the unscrupulous bohemian who is strangely sympathetic despite his dubious character. Lele has met only few species of the type in the course of his professional life—and none of them has appeared to him as nice and as well-behaved as Seiya Kou. Irresistibly charming and loyal towards his friends and his allies, calculating and ruthlessly efficient when threatened by an enemy, Seiya Kou belongs to the people who are generous in spirit but—if they regard it as necessary—don't hesitate to kill.

Stepping on boundaries regularly without receiving a punishment can corrupt the most noble minds, Lele thinks to himself, remembering a few young sociopaths who had escaped the law a few times before they completely lost it and went on a killing spree. Seiya Kou fits into the pattern well with his uninhibited and bold character, which only lacks the antisocial mean streak. And Lele, feeling sorry for all the three of them, seriously hopes that the lack of meanness in the singer's character is real and not only acted.

Letting the door behind him fall shut with a quiet click, Lele grimly joins the trio on the way to the exit.

"Our society is fascinated by secret love affairs and stories about unbridled passion," Lele tells Seiya Kou in a low voice when they turn right into the small corridor leading to the exit. "A playboy image might even support your career instead of endangering it. Poisons, however, aren't that much in fashion anymore and don't go with your sportsmanlike conduct. I'd hate to see a career like yours ruined by unfounded claims since it would be such a great loss to the musical world."

A fair warning, which should be sufficient to help the singer realize the gravity of his situation if he is really as innocent as he looks. But instead of being thankful for it as one would expect, Seiya Kou only raises his brow at Lele with an amused expression.

At the same time, Shinichi Kudo and Shiho Miyano have slowed down and are walking together as if they had never separated, whispering (sweet nothings?) into each other's ears while their temples are almost touching. A furtive glance over his shoulder reveals to Lele that she has just brushed her fingertips gently against the detective's silver grey slacks and is now leaving him to casually sidle up to her boyfriend with her hands in her pockets, her unfathomable cat-like eyes momentarily lit up by a mischievous, slightly complacent smile.

Self-absorbed and indiscreet as people in love always are, they are flirting shamelessly even in the presence of her boyfriend, who is busying himself with his mobile phone so that he can save face in front of Lele by pretending he hasn't noticed it. Simultaneously touched and irritated by Seiya Kou's desperate attempt to overlook his girlfriend's thoughtless behaviour, Lele feels a surge of anger rising at Shiho Miyano's coquetry. As he suspected, she belongs to the flighty femme fatales who always bring ruin on the men they love with their inability to make a choice and to stick to it. How many senseless wars have been fought on grounds of a single woman's fickleness and infidelity!

"The musical world will exist with or without me," Seiya Kou stoically shrugs and shows his girlfriend a message on his phone (a short mail from a mutual friend?) before he puts it back into his pocket and offers her his arm. "One singer more or less really doesn't matter."

"At least not to the musical world," Shiho Miyano whispers, squeezing his arm she is now holding. Apparently, they have finally given up their charade; and in view of their newly acquired frankness, Lele decides to be straightforward as well.

"You had a quarrel with Signora Tenoh before the first act, so I heard," Lele gravely says, throwing a sidelong glance at Shinichi Kudo, who has turned his face away to behold the poster of _The Phantom of the Opera_ on the wall. Rei Hino—the temperamental soprano looks the embodiment of vulnerable beauty with her dark hair and her porcelain-doll face—is gazing up at the masked figure hovering above her in rapture and fascination, which seem almost too real to be acted.

"We were always having a row about something," the singer dryly replies. "It would have been odd if we hadn't quarrelled at all."

"May I ask what you two argued about this time?"

"This time it was about her opera. She dedicated it to me and I refused to sing it after studying the scores. Before the first act, she demanded that I tell her my personal opinion about it and I answered truthfully that it didn't meet her standard."

"Someone who overheard the quarrel claimed that it was about a letter to your agent in which Signora Tenoh revealed details from your private life—details you would rather hide from the public and from her." Lele gives Shiho Miyano an apologetic smile.

They have just reached the exit where Guido Moretti—at the sight of Seiya Kou, as Lele notices—immediately puts the paperback in his hand away, reaches under the counter, and releases the turnstile of his own accord. Pushing the door open, the singer doesn't immediately step out into the campo beyond the door but stops right in front of the exit, turning back to shoot the portiere a long, challenging smile.

"I remember she ranted a bit about Shiho's reputation as well, threatening that she was going to send my agent to Venice to talk Shiho into moving out. It's one of Haruka's pet threats whenever she felt insulted, nothing to be taken seriously. But may I ask who the witnesses of our quarrel were?" Seiya Kou asks with interest, whereupon Moretti blushes and pales in turn. Seeing no sense in hiding the identity of the witnesses, Lele tells Seiya Kou the names, much to Moretti's apparent dismay.

"Gentile doesn't understand Japanese," Seiya Kou chuckles, "and since I'm sure that he—" he indicates the portiere, "—doesn't understand Japanese either, the only eye witness to that quarrel was Nadia Gorowitz, and you haven't ever spoken to her in person, have you?"

No, he hasn't, Lele admits. He will be meeting her, though, if he deems it necessary as the case progresses.

"Well, then," Seiya Kou smiles, beaming at him with the exuberance of a child. "I'm very curious about your opinion of Gorowitz after you've met her. And now Shiho and I really need to leave since we can't let Rei wait any longer."

"Only one last question," Lele requests. "You had tickets for the opera, so I heard, and you went out during the first interval to fetch the painkillers for Signora Miyano—as witnessed by Signor Moretti, who released the turnstile for you. But why didn't you attend the first act? Where were you?" Searching in Shinichi Kudo's unreadable face for a sign of support, Lele adds as an afterthought: "If Signora Miyano already suffered from her headaches before the first act, why didn't you go out to get her painkillers immediately but stayed in the opera house until the first interval?"

"I didn't have any headaches during the first act," interjects Shiho Miyano before her boyfriend can reply. Leaning closer to the startled singer, who—after a moment of stunned silence—sighs in defeat and protectively wraps his arm around her waist, she gives Lele a tired smile and explains: "Seiya doesn't have much time these days because of the musical. Hence we decided to stay in his dressing room to spend a bit of time together instead of watching Haruka's performance. Are you disappointed now? It's the truth although it's not spectacular."

x.

Her intimate tone of voice and her flushed face suggest unspeakable secrets within the walls of a private dressing room, making Shinichi wonder why Ai thinks that Seiya needs an alibi for the first act and wants to shield him so badly that she voluntarily ruins whatever is left of her reputation for his safety. This is the second time that she has forgotten about herself to protect the selfish idol brat, acting so impetuously and irrationally that Shinichi would believe that she is really in love with the guy if the thought of Haibara-Ai-in-love weren't so frightening to him.

Whatever the quarrel was about, it must have been big enough to prompt Seiya and her to stay in the backstage area instead of watching Tenoh Haruka and Hino Rei's performance, a behaviour so inconsiderate and overtly rude in light of Hino's theatrical debut that they must have had a better reason to justify it than only the wish of spending some quality time with each other. However, so many unanswered questions are still whirling around in Shinichi's head that he decides to postpone thinking about this reason until later when he is alone.

Now the four of them are walking down the narrow street along the opera house towards the Canal, where Hino Rei is waiting for Seiya and Ai in Seiya's motorboat. Even though his coat is still in the cloakroom and the air has become chilly in the night, Shinichi has insisted on escorting them to the motorboat so that he can use the time to interrogate Seiya Kou. To his annoyance, Carrara has decided to come with them as well, giving Shinichi sympathetic and worried glances as if he feared that Shinichi might commit a crime of passion in his absence.

Throwing another irritated glance at the linked arms of the fake couple in front of him, Shinichi thinks to himself that, notwithstanding his unpolished acting skills, he and Ai were indisputably the better team during their charade. Seiya and Ai, despite being two brilliant talents who can easily fool the whole world with their acting, have frequent awkward moments as a pair in which they seem completely out of sync: moments in which either of them go over the top or suddenly do something which doesn't quite fit into their charade as if they haven't really agreed on what type of charade they are actually playing.

What are they trying to achieve with their senseless game, anyway? They have just fooled Carrara into believing that they are passionately in love although it only strengthened Carrara's suspicion against Seiya—a fact anyone would have expected after hearing what Carrara told them about Gorowitz's witness account. Asking her directly like Shinichi did in the corridor ("Why don't you just stop this stupid game of hide-and-seek?") was futile, as she obviously can't comprehend Shinichi's impatience ("Just wait until we can talk about it tomorrow!).

The short mail from Taiki Kou, which Seiya showed Ai and which Shinichi—walking behind them—has managed to read, doesn't make the situation any clearer to him. "Just hold on and keep it up until I can tell you," it said. Hold on, just keep up the charade... But what for, for heaven's sake?

"There is a Sherlock Holmes painting in Tenoh's dressing room. Do you know who painted it?" Shinichi asks Seiya.

He doesn't know the artist of the Sherlock Holmes painting, Seiya Kou replies. Of course he noticed the painting when he went to Haruka's room to borrow the sofa she didn't need for Shiho, who likes to nap during the day and stay awake all night like a cat. But he can't say who painted it since Michiru's style is completely different, apart from the fact that it looks as if it has been painted by someone else who is talented but whose technical skills can't hold a candle to Michiru's perfection.

"Like a cat..." Ai echoes in mock exasperation.

"Or like a little kitten," Seiya teases her.

"At least I do sleep unlike a certain someone who is too overactive for his own sake," she remarks and intertwines their fingers while his thumb gently caresses the back of hers in an automatic gesture.

Meanwhile, Shinichi suppresses the urge to roll his eyes at their performance and retains a nonchalant expression in order to dispel Carrara's groundless fear. The silliness of their game irks him more than he can express although most of his fury stems from his impatience and his feelings of betrayal and not from jealousy as Carrara is obviously thinking.

They are still holding hands when they arrive at Seiya's boat, where Hino Rei is sitting behind the wheel, waiting for them. Rubbing her arms and fidgeting with boredom, she doesn't even try to hide her displeasure at the sight of Shinichi and Carrara walking behind her friends.

"I didn't know I have to drive all of you! What about shaking a leg before I freeze to death here? I really need a few hours of sleep after this so-called 'opera'!" Hino complains, yawning demonstratively when her gaze falls on Seiya's and Ai's clasped hands.

"Why do you call Tenoh's opera 'an opera'?" Shinichi asks Seiya.

"Because it is an opera?" Seiya throws him a bewildered look.

"Formally, it's a concert," Hino interjects. "But since Haruka called it an opera, I'd guess one can call it whatever one wants."

"No," Seiya shakes his head. "It's clearly an opera to me."

"It's a concert, Seiya-kun," Hino switches to Japanese to defend herself. "There is no opera for one singer and a piano."

"It depends on whether you value the form or the character of a musical piece more, I suppose," Seiya sighs. "To me, something which has the character of an opera is an opera, not a concert." Ending the discussion which seems to irritate him, he turns to Shinichi and Carrara. "We can drop you at your places if you like," he suggests, letting go of Ai's hand.

Both Shinichi and Carrara decline the offer so that the four of them are standing in the wind now, saying civil words of goodbye like strangers on first acquaintance do.

"See you tomorrow for tea," Ai calmly says, "and please feel free to bring Mori if she has time."

It must have been either the urge to pay Seiya back for his switching act during the interrogation or the wish to ascertain that the grown-up Haibara Ai standing in front of him is real because Shinichi surprises himself when he steps forward and pulls her into a tight embrace, burying his face into her hair for a moment before he hurriedly lets go. She feels conspicuously different from the ten-year-old girl he carried in his arms back at Pandora's Box. But it's not the difference which throws him but the warm scent of her hair, which vaguely reminds him of Seiya's—an unobtrusive but lingering perfume, in which he can discern the fragrance of kinmokusei with a note of orange blossom.

"Today," he corrects her. In response, she only stares at him with a confused expression before turning away.

Seiya Kou, unfazed by Shinichi's action, has jumped into the backseat in an effortless smooth movement before turning to her again with his outstretched hand, which she takes without hesitation.

Shinichi can still remember clearly what she told him when he once offered her his hand to help her climb out of the car.

_I may be sick, but I'm not dying!_

"Which one do you think is it?" he can suddenly hear Seiya's voice asking him. The singer is contemplating him with thoughtful and troubled eyes, and Shinichi can't tell whether Seiya's lack of anger means that he is absolutely sure of Ai's feelings for him or whether he is simply not in love with her at all.

"Is it an opera or a concert?" Seiya asks again. "Is it the form or the character of a piece, which is actually more important?"

"The character, in my opinion," Shinichi replies, realizing with a start what the singer is trying to say.

"Men!" Hino sighs. "You're all the same."

"It's just like marriage," Seiya continues in a matter-of-fact tone. "To most people, it's the papers and the ring which count. To others, it's just the nature of the relationship and the feelings which really matter."

"What a pretty excuse for not marrying the woman you're living with," Shinichi murmurs. But the words get lost in the noise, as Hino Rei has already started the engine.

Ai has been silent during the whole exchange and is now turning her attention to Hino Rei, who has started a monologue about the appalling weather. Unlike Seiya, who casually bids Shinichi and Carrara goodbye, she doesn't even look back when the motorboat drives off. But when Shinichi puts his hands into his trouser pockets, he can feel the small card she has slipped into his left pocket when no one was looking. Noticing that Carrara is still gazing after the boat, he steps back into the light of the street lamp and throws a quick glance at both sides of the card before stuffing it back into his pocket.

"Tenoh Akira."

Carelessly scribbled on the small white sheet of watercolour paper using a red marker (obviously not lightfast, as the colour is already fading), the name has been written in same handwriting he saw in _The Return of Sherlock Holmes_.

"A most charming couple, don't you think?" Carrara turns round, watching Shinichi's reaction attentively. "I like them a lot, both of them. I don't want to find out that he did something stupid tonight. Ruining a life like his because of love... It would be such a shame."

"Michiru Kaioh and Haruka Tenoh were a beautiful couple as well, but their lives were ruined, too. Whoever did it deserves to be locked up," Shinichi retorts, trying desperately to sound nonchalant. "I really don't care who."

The motorboat has almost disappeared from his sight when he notices that she—now only a tiny dark figure in the distance—has turned to look at him. Next to her, Seiya Kou has turned around as well, both of them apparently fixing him with their gazes while their heads are slightly bent towards each other, their hair and foreheads almost touching, their outlines melting into each other in the darkness of the night...

They are talking about him.

For a moment, he is utterly baffled by their behaviour when Kino's comment about Kaioh and Seiya's little flirt to aggravate Tenoh suddenly comes to mind.

What have you been thinking, he asks the image of Miyano Shiho in his mind. Don't you know how dangerous it is to play the same charade we excelled at with a notorious heartthrob like him? One day you will be murdered by his agent and his fans...

The singer's ringing laughter when he claimed that she was responsible for the contents of his pockets replays over and over in Shinichi's mind, irking him. Who is Seiya trying to tease this time by sharing his apartment with Ai and asking her to act as his girlfriend? After hearing from all of Seiya's friends about his puerile pranks, Shinichi should have known better than to fall for their charade just because she accepted his hand and took his napkin. Frowning at the boat, which is now out of sight, Shinichi is smouldering with anger at himself, wondering why, in the back of his mind, there is still this peculiar sense of foreboding, why a voice in his head tells him that his deduction doesn't sound right, and why his heart actually missed a beat due to their dumb and... aggravating... little game.

x.

* * *

 

 

A/N: I do remember that I mentioned in one of the first chapters that Shinichi has mistaken Ran's chocolate heart for a chocolate peach once again, but I'm going to explain it later in detail. (Just wanted to make clear that the confession Conan told Ai about in this chapter was not a giant plot hole.)


	10. Part Two: One thing is clear...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**One thing is clear...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

One thing is clear, Lele thinks while watching the motorboat disappear into the night: Seiya Kou has never considered sharing his girlfriend with Shinichi Kudo as Lele mistakenly assumed. The singer has acknowledged the little flirt between Kudo and his girlfriend with the composure of someone who knows he has nothing to fear, keeping up a pleasant facade to spare her a scene until he could no longer contain himself. Taken out of context, Kudo's impulsive hug was only a harmless and quite amiable gesture towards an old friend or ex-lover Kudo hasn't seen for years. But after all the overt amorous advances Kudo made to Shiho Miyano during the interrogation, the hug must have been the last straw, and Lele can hardly blame Seiya Kou for feeling the need to state his opinion clearly for once. He did it in such a decent and classy manner as well, making use of the discussion about the name of the opera to put Kudo in his place. The _Opera_ (formally only a collection of songs) is called an opera because it has all the most important defining characteristics of an opera, was basically what Seiya Kou said—just like a long-time love affair resembles a marriage when the couple is living together in a monogamous and committed relationship like theirs. Kudo can always visit them for lunch or for tea as her old friend and former classmate, but a happy relationship consisting of two usually doesn't need a third party.

And yet, Lele can't help but feel sorry for the detective, whose passionate nature—the only weakness in his character Lele can detect until now—reminds Lele of himself when he was younger. In addition, Lele has become even more apprehensive about Seiya Kou, whose scheming personality (everything other than the impulsive character his friends have credited him with!) has once again revealed itself. There is something devious about his strategy to get rid of his rival by faking acquiescence and then picking up the gauntlet in such a sneaky way before they left. You can flirt with her as much as you want, he might as well have said. It doesn't bother me in the least since tonight, she will be with me.

Anyhow, regardless of their faults, they are the kind of couple Lele doesn't want to separate even though he fears it can't be avoided if the autopsy results come back positive for poisoning. Among all the people who could have murdered Haruka Tenoh, Seiya Kou is the only person with a motive. Trying to steal his beloved girlfriend from him with considerable success (the technicians said Shiho Miyano went out with Haruka Tenoh whenever Seiya Kou was busy rehearsing his musicals), ridiculing him with an unsingable song cycle called opera, luring his jealous agent to Venice to pressure his girlfriend into moving out of their shared apartment... Considered separately from each other, none of these things appear nasty enough to provide a motive for a murder. But people have already been murdered for much smaller reasons, and Haruka Tenoh was continually provoking Seiya Kou into a fight, as Rei Hino said...

"Come on, it's cold," Lele jabs his elbow at the detective, who is still standing under the street lamp, unmoving like a bronze statue. Despite wearing only a thin dinner suit, he doesn't seem to freeze in the biting November wind. Nonetheless, he is so lost in thought that Lele has the impression he will stay here until tomorrow morning if Lele doesn't help him.

"Let's go back to the opera house to fetch your jacket or your coat," Lele continues to prod at the young man. "Your coat is still in the cloakroom, isn't it? It's late. I'm sure Alessi and the portiere would like to go to bed as well." As Shinichi Kudo only gazes at him in abstraction and doesn't react, Lele adds in a soothing voice: "Your fiancée is waiting for you in the hotel, isn't she? She will—"

"But Ran isn't my fiancée," the detective obstinately denies. "I've already told you that we aren't a couple."

x.

One of the greatest problems an investigator must always fight against—Shinichi tries to get his point across to Carrara on the way back to the opera house—is one's own tendency to draw conclusions from flimsy evidence. Ran and he aren't a couple just as "Shiho Miyano" and he have never been in a romantic relationship. "Shiho" (Ai's real name sounds somewhat unsuitable for her in Shinichi's ears!) is only a friend who had left Japan so suddenly that meeting her again in a situation like this completely threw him off balance. Moreover, he is naturally worried about her now that he knows she is sharing the apartment with an infamous womanizer like Seiya Kou.

"But she seems to have tamed him, as you said." Carrara throws him another pitying glance. "And since they look perfectly happy with each other, I'd think twice before visiting them for tea if I were you."

Seeing the utter futility of trying to convince Carrara that he is not at all in love with Ai (who belongs to the unaccommodating and complicated type of woman he will always steer clear of), Shinichi bites back the rejoinder which has already sprung to his lips that Carrara shows more interest in a fictitious love triangle than in the mystery. Instead, he rapidly goes through the key questions which remain unanswered at this point of the investigation and counts his own steps until he has cooled down enough to ponder over Ai's disappearance, her "sort-of" friendship with Tenoh Haruka, and her romantically flavoured attachment to her fake employer.

What is she doing in Venice out of all places? Seiya said that they met at Tenoh's house although, in view of Seiya's acting skills and his penchant for lying with every breath he draws, Shinichi knows better than to take his assertions at face value. From Ai's reaction to Seiya's claim that he would never have passed the IQ test at Infinity, Shinichi infers that Seiya was actually accepted into the academy and changed his mind before entering it. The school Kino, Aino, Seiya, and Chiba Usagi went to was most probably Juuban high school since Chiba mentioned that they lived in Azabu Juuban, where Infinity was also situated. Of course one can't rule out the possibility that they all went to another high school and Chiba and his wife only moved to Juuban after their marriage, but checking out Seiya's education shouldn't pose a problem for Shinichi because the internet must be full of Seiya's fan sites. If Shinichi is lucky, the scandal with Chiba's wife won't be difficult to dig up either.

As things are, Shinichi strongly suspects that Seiya knows about Stinger just as he knows about the Organization and Infinity's link to it. If Seiya really met Ai for the first time at Tenoh's house (in Japan?) as he claimed, one can safely assume that Ai had been seeking Tenoh's or Kaioh's help to leave Japan in secret when Seiya, who had been staying there as a guest, asked her to go to Venice with him. The opposite could also be true and Ai actually asked Seiya to bring her to Venice because she wanted to meet Tenoh. This is an even more likely hypothesis since—according to Kino—Tenoh and Kaioh had already moved to Venice at the time of Ai's disappearance.

How did she manage to leave Pandora's Box without a boat? Hattori must have saved her life by putting her into one of the wooden boxes and leaving the ship with her before it exploded. It was the only sensible decision in their situation since staying on Pandora's Box would have meant certain death while abandoning the ship in that way left them a minimal chance of reaching the shore alive. If Shinichi couldn't come back in time for some reason, Hattori told him when they parted, he would find a way to save them until the FBI arrived...

_Don't worry. I promise I'll come back in time no matter what happens. I'm too busy to attend your funerals, after all._

There they are again, the memories which always assail Shinichi whenever he doesn't expect them, accompanied by the sense of guilt he has never managed to get rid of. As a rule, Shinichi doesn't allow himself to waste time and energy by dwelling on old regrets. But tonight, after this disappointing reunion with Ai, he can't help but hark back to the past and muse on how different things could have been if it hadn't been for a few unfortunate coincidences and wrong decisions. If Hattori and Shinichi had taken Vodka with them instead of leaving him in the log cabin, if Shinichi had resisted the temptation of backing-up Pandora's Box and simply terminated the whole enterprise, if he had reacted a bit faster when Vodka attacked him, if he hadn't trusted Ran's watch and double-checked the time, if he had told Ran the truth instead of lies... Would Hattori still be alive?

x.

About three years and eleven months ago, Shinichi woke up in the woods with excruciating headaches, three large bruises on his back, his left shoulder, and his left arm, what felt like a few broken ribs, a broken watch, and the realization that, after hitting his head against the boulder he was presently lying on, he must have passed out for who knew how long. Opening two capsules of APAH and swallowing their contents without water, he gave himself a few seconds to peer over the precipice—a black wolf-shaped creature under the full moon—and to assess the current situation.

The man in black under the cliff was, without doubt, dead, as no human being could have survived such a fall. And even though Shinichi was convinced that every human being had an essential right to live, he didn't feel particularly saddened by Vodka's undignified final exit after the latter had tried to shoot him and wounded Ai in the nearby log cabin. Having been Gin's direct subordinate for many years, Vodka would have made an important witness in court. But losing his balance and toppling off a cliff while trying to club another person to death was actually a most fitting ending for the secretary of the much-feared "second crow". In a sense, Shinichi was relieved, as the circumstances surrounding Vodka's death allowed him to abandon the corpse and sprint in the direction of the village with a clear conscience. Additionally, he was so terrified of being late that he wasn't even surprised when he spotted Ran in front of the door of a farmhouse even though she was supposed to be staying at Toyama's in Osaka.

"Shinichi! What are you doing here? I thought you're in Kyoto! And what happened to your watch? How on earth did you manage to smash it like that?"

"Oh, it's... nothing worth mentioning." Shinichi anxiously glanced at Ran's watch, which said nine thirty-five, and ascertained with satisfaction that he had only passed out for a few minutes. "I accidentally stumbled over a root and tore my shirt on a twig when I fell." It was most disturbing how easily the lies came to his lips these days. But telling her he had been attacked by Vodka, who—for an unknown reason—had managed to escape from the log cabin despite having been neatly tied to the heater by Hattori and him, would only trigger a chain of further questions he couldn't answer now.

She couldn't believe he was just as clumsy as Eisuke-kun, Ran exclaimed. But was that blood on his shirt?

It wasn't his but the blood of a victim of his recent case, Shinichi reassured her. He only got a few bruises and scratches, nothing worth mentioning. However, he had to give someone a call at ten forty sharp. Did she know where a public phone box was?

He could call from the farmhouse where she was staying if he wanted, as it was only a ten-to-fifteen-minute walk from here. But why didn't he use his mobile phone? Was anyone murdered in the woods? He shouldn't walk around in the village looking like this! And where was Hattori?

"Hattori will be staying in Tokyo until tomorrow night, and my phone is dead," Shinichi grimaced when Ran fished her mobile phone out of her pocket. "I'd rather not use your phone either. It's a long story I really can't explain to you now. Let's search for a public phone box, shall we?"

Naturally, Shinichi could have double-checked the time on Ran's mobile phone but, assuming that the vintage watch she got from her mother kept good time since she always took care that it was properly wound, he didn't consider the idea even once. Deciding to let Vodka's corpse lie where it was until he had rescued Ai and Hattori, as he didn't want the inhabitants of the village to gather at the log cabin before the whole operation against "the seven crows" was over, Shinichi suggested after finding an old public phone box that Ran and he roamed the shore near the woods together until ten forty, claiming he didn't want to disturb his "client" before the agreed time.

It was a remarkably beautiful but windy night. And as Shinichi was walking beside Ran, silently listening to her story of her father's old mahjong friend who invited them to his farmhouse for the weekend and who, just like the Sleeping Kogoro, had passed out from their drinking binge, his mind wound back to Ai and Hattori, who had been squabbling ceaselessly ever since they left Paris and who were probably sulking at each other at this very moment, impatiently waiting for his return so that they no longer had to endure their involuntary tête-à-tête. The two of them hadn't interacted with each other very often before they all set out to secure Pandora's Box, and their bickering—the first indications of a tentative friendship?—simultaneously amused and irritated Shinichi.

 _"Of course we can continue as planned! It's just a tiny flesh wound, really nothing worth mentioning. If it's only for a few hours, I'm sure I'll be all right. Just come back in time, will you?"_ Ai had shot Shinichi a friendly threatening glare before pointing an accusing finger at the boxes stuffed full of printed copies of the Organization's documents. _"It's not my dream to be blown up with their files because I'd like my tragic demise to happen in a romantically beautiful setting."_

 _Wasn't the sea beautiful enough for her,_ Hattori had countered, much to Shinichi's exasperation. _Getting blown up for the sake of humanity in the middle of the ocean wasn't a mundane death in any aspect. Even a tiresome spoiled princess like chibi nee-san couldn't demand a nicer ending._

 _It wasn't picturesque at all to bite the dust among computer cables and plastic folders, and it was even less acceptable to die together with a mystery-obsessed idiot who still believed in prophetic dreams and lucky charms and was proud of his sing-song Kansai dialect she couldn't put up with in her condition. She would be perfectly all right if he shut up and let her suffer in peace._ In answer to Hattori's remark that there was nothing he liked less than sitting with the Queen of Gloom in absolute silence, she suggested that he study the files in the kitchen until Shinichi returned. _"Or just jump into the sea if you prefer that. I bet the water is pleasant enough for a swim."_

"What are you grinning about?" Ran gave Shinichi a puzzled look.

"Sorry, I was distracted. So you're going to stay here for the weekend. How do you like the isle?"

She loved it although there was a rather creepy incident tonight which had shaken her: Chasing after the dog she had volunteered to walk out, she discovered a small log cabin on the Werewolf Cliff from which she heard odd sounds reminding her of the muffled cries of a human. In spite of her fear of ghosts and werewolves, she knocked down the door to the cabin and found a short, burly man in black, who looked strangely familiar to her. Since there was blood on the floor and the man was tied to the heater, she deduced that the poor man had been attacked and robbed. Of course she didn't hesitate but immediately freed him, whereupon the thankless stranger, much to her surprise, didn't express any gratitude at his rescue but only urged her not to tell anyone about the incident before ushering her out of his cabin. Disturbed about the incident, she tried to reason with him, telling him that what happened to him was actually a matter for the police. But in the end, he managed to convince her to keep the matter to herself with the story that the person who had whacked him into unconsciousness (with the blood-smeared raven sculpture, which was now lying on the floor) and tying him up like that was none other than his hot-headed wife, who was out of her mind due to a tragic misunderstanding. He was also sure that said wife—insecure and extremely jealous—would return home soon as she always did, which was why he didn't want Ran to stay in his cabin for fear of further unpleasant scenes.

Understandably, Ran was in a dilemma now, as she was no longer sure that his story was the truth. Going to the police, however, entailed creating a scandal in the village, which would only make the miserable life of that married couple even more miserable if the things the man told her were true. What did Shinichi think about the little mystery? Should she go the police or not? She actually went out for a second time tonight because she hoped that a fresh breath of air would help her clear her head and come to a decision.

"I don't think you should go to the police and rush things," Shinichi hastily advised her. "Just wait until tomorrow and I'll look into this matter for you after solving my recent case."

Ran looked suitably confused at his lack of interest. Nevertheless, Shinichi didn't want to present her with a more elaborate lie and, to his consolation, her joy of seeing him again distracted her from the strange case whose "culprits" were Hattori and Shinichi himself.

At ten forty, Shinichi stepped into the public phone box and dialed the number he knew by heart with a sense of great relief. He almost wished he hadn't promised Hattori and Ai that he would wait until ten forty to call Mr James Black to make sure that the FBI couldn't arrive before the ship exploded. In retrospect, he should never have accepted Ai's plan no matter how convenient it sounded. Her wounds undoubtedly hurt even though they weren't fatal. Although he knew she had an astonishing tolerance to physical pain, he couldn't get the image of her blood-smeared cardigan and her feverishly gleaming eyes out of his mind.

"If the explosion was scheduled to take place at half past eleven, it's too late for us to step in now, isn't it?" asked Mr. Black's skeptical voice. He was far too perceptive not to notice that Shinichi was playing by his own rules. But since everything went according to Shinichi's—Hattori's and Ai's—plans, Shinichi was confident enough to keep up the pretense despite Mr Black's disapproval.

"I've found a motorboat I can use to fetch them. I can make it until a quarter past eleven. But we also need an ambulance—"

"It's eleven forty-five p.m. on my watch, meitantei-san," Mr. Black's tone changed from skeptical to genuinely surprised. "If the explosion was scheduled at half past eleven, it must have happened fifteen minutes ago."

No, that's impossible, Shinichi wanted to say. However, he suddenly felt too sick to utter a sound. When he stormed out of the phone box and wordlessly took Ran's mobile phone out of her pocket to check the time, the screen showed him that Mr Black was right.

x.

The fact that—unlike him—Hattori did save Ai as promised raise questions which disturb Shinichi in a way he would never have imagined. If Hattori had somehow managed to save Ai (who, wounded or not wounded, could never have swum even for a minute in that weather), Shinichi can't think of a reason why Hattori couldn't have saved himself. One box might have been too small for both of them, but Hattori could easily have tied two boxes together with the ropes he could find on the ship in abundance...

For the first time since he saw Ai again, Shinichi is struck by the thought that—just like he doesn't know how she survived while Hattori died—she still doesn't know the reason why he couldn't fetch them. In his made-up story, he and she have talked about that night so many times that he has taken her understanding for granted. The realization that she must still be in the dark about Ran's slow watch and might resent him for not keeping his promise explains her rather cool reaction to his hug. Or was she so taken aback by his sudden outburst that she didn't know how to react? They both know he usually doesn't hug friends and would probably never have embraced her under different circumstances...

In any case, Ai must have planned her vanishing act even before Hattori, Shinichi, and she left Tokyo for Paris, as evidenced by the one redundant antidote she left in her drawer and the other pill she must have hidden from him, which she used to turn back to her adult state. Who or what was she running from so that she either didn't dare to write or only wrote two letters before she—despite the lack of an answer to her letters—cut off all contact? She had become increasingly paranoid about the telephone line and the internet since she learned from him that they had been watched. On the other hand, hiding in Venice in Seiya Kou's apartment is an idea only Suzuki Sonoko can get. The longer he thinks about it, the less Shinichi can believe that Ai had been fleeing from danger, as she wouldn't have kept her real name and lived with Seiya Kou out of all people if she had wanted to go into hiding.

The turnstile was immediately released when Carrara and Shinichi arrived at the exit. When they pass the counter, Guido Moretti darts both of them a reproachful look before he demonstratively devotes his attention to the theatre programme in his hands.

"Are you sure that Seiya passed you twice tonight since the beginning of the opera?" Shinichi asks.

"Not twice. Three times. He just went past me for the third time when he left a few minutes ago," the portiere replies, tight-lipped and defiant.

But that's improbable, Shinichi thinks as Carrara and he pass the backstage area for another time and climb down the stage to the concert hall. A conspicuous celebrity like Seiya couldn't have returned through the main entrance without anyone noticing him, especially since he must have walked past the left entrance to the concert hall where Alessandra DiGiorgio—a fan of his—was standing, keeping an eye out for him as she openly admitted to her Haibara-Ai-lookalike friend (Nadia Gorowitz?) during the talk Shinichi overheard when he returned from the public phone box.

The ushers closed the doors to the hall before the second act and kept them shut during the whole performance. Since no one saw Seiya in the concert hall, he must have returned at the beginning of the second interval unnoticed by the ushers and Chiba Mamoru, evaded Luigi Gentile and even Ai, who was searching for him, passed the empty stage unseen by all the ushers and the technicians, for whom he was an unwilling object of infatuation and gossip, climbed the stage, and walked to his dressing room without drawing the attention of either Hino Rei or Kino Makoto. During that time, Tenoh was in her own dressing room, suffering from headaches, which might have been the major cause of her clumsy arpeggios during the second act. Kino and Hino were having tea in the backstage café until Hino returned to her dressing room to study her scores and Kino called Aino Minako for a prolonged chat. When Tenoh opened the door to the backstage café, Seiya left the opera house again through the exit...

Even though this scenario is not absolutely impossible, it is highly improbable and just absurd as Seiya's behaviour throughout the whole interrogation.

_Did you give her the painkillers?_

_No, I didn't visit her after I returned. We met for the last time before the first act in the corridor._

A lie told with such an honest expression that Shinichi would have swallowed it if it hadn't been for the witness accounts of the other suspects and Seiya's own tendency to contradict himself. Seiya must have seen Tenoh when she opened the door to the backstage café to ask Kino for the water while he was going out for the second time. However, it could be a misunderstanding, and Seiya only omitted the fact that he did see Tenoh since he really didn't talk to her and, according to his understanding, didn't meet her. One also can't rule out the possibility that Seiya's statement was actually true and Kino's was false. But what reason should Kino have for lying about having seen Seiya through the door of the café just when Tenoh opened it?

"He is an intimidating man, Signor Seiya Kou," Carrara muses. "The portiere obviously fears him more than us." Receiving no reaction from Shinichi, he insistently presses on: "Signor Seiya Kou also didn't lose his temper when I provoked him as one could have expected. It seems to me he can keep himself in check much better than his friends claim."

"He is an impressive actor," Shinichi listlessly responds. While Shinichi shares Carrara's view that Seiya is not the carefree, light-hearted man he pretends to be, Shinichi doesn't think "intimidating" is the right word to describe a person who lets Ai kick him under the table without showing the slightest hint of annoyance. To all appearances, Seiya lets Ai kick him regularly.

"But why were you so interested in their handwritings? Do you believe in graphology?" Carrara jokes as Shinichi puts on his coat. The commissario is apparently trying to distract Shinichi from some imagined heartache with his silly questions. In a way, his concern is almost touching, and Shinichi decides to put the sympathy Carrara has for him to good use.

He is only comparing their handwritings to the one he found in _The Return of Sherlock Holmes_ on Tenoh's bookshelf because he is curious, Shinichi claims. The books are an exclusive hand-bound edition he has never seen before, and he thinks it's peculiar that Tenoh kept such an expensive and personal gift in her dressing room and not in her apartment. Although this little mystery probably doesn't have anything to do with the case, the Sherlock Holmes painting intrigues him for the same reason. When will Tenoh's personal possessions be sent to Kaioh Michiru at the latest, tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon? He would like to pay Kaioh a visit since he wants to have another look at the painting under better lighting.

"This afternoon if Signora Kaioh doesn't object to it," Carrara rolls his eyes. "Don't you ever get tired?"

"You said you were a fan of Tenoh's." Shinichi ignores Carrara's question, which he takes as a compliment. "Do you know anything about her family and her background?"

She didn't like to talk about her family, Carrara tells him, and the press wasn't particularly interested in her family background. Both her parents were said to be of mixed race, her father a Franco-American and her mother an Italian-Japanese, which is why Signora Tenoh was a rather polyglot person. Her mother died when she was very young so that she was raised by her father in France until she was fourteen and moved to Japan for unknown reasons. There she started her glittering racing career and, at sixteen or seventeen, attended Infinity with Kaioh, who was already her girlfriend when they entered the academy.

"There are many legends about the two of them, you know," Carrara gushes as they are once again walking through the backstage area with sergeant Alessi in tow. "Love at first sight that prevailed after they both cut the ties to their families for each other, dramatic jealousy scenes in hotels where Signora Tenoh flirted with the staff, another girl that tried to kill herself out of unrequited love to Tenoh, things which are probably nothing but idle rumours. But it's true that they're raising an adopted daughter together since I spotted her with them in the cinema once when she was holidaying in Venice. The little girl is said to be very frail and is living at their house in Japan with a good friend of theirs because they don't want the press to bother her."

And what's the name of the adopted daughter, Shinichi asks, thinking of the card Ai slipped into his trouser pocket.

"I don't know. They didn't reveal it during their interviews, saying that they wanted their shy princess to live a normal life despite her celebrity parents. If anyone was interested in the identity of the girl, the reporters would already have revealed her name since she is Professor Tomoe's only daughter. But apparently, nobody cared about her enough to investigate."

"Professor Tomoe's daughter? I suppose Tenoh and Kaioh adopted her when the professor was admitted to his mental hospital? Or did they take her out of the orphanage some time afterwards?"

"They adopted her immediately after the mad professor burned down Infinity, according to the article I read. I remember I was surprised that Signora Tenoh would so readily adopt the child of the man responsible for her brother's death. But then again Signor Chiba said that she was a very generous person."

"So Tenoh's brother died in the fire?"

"Yes, he was searching for her at Infinity, so I heard, and was trapped in one of Professor Tomoe's laboratories when the buildings were set ablaze. It was during one of Signora Tenoh's last races."

"Do you know what his name was?"

"Akira. It's a very nice-sounding name to European ears, otherwise I'd already have forgotten it. But I don't know anything about him except that he was only few years older than her and lived in Paris with their father. They must have been very close because she quit racing after he died... To be fair, Professor Tomoe must have thought that no one was on campus when he burned down Infinity, since Signora Tenoh was a star whose races the students at Infinity never missed."

Raising his hand to say goodbye to the portiere (who, after releasing the turnstile for them once again, has just put on his coat to leave as well), Carrara opens the door and waits until Alessi passes before letting it fall into Shinichi's face.

"Still, I don't think many people would have forgiven the professor for what he did and readily adopted his daughter to spare her the orphanage," he continues as Shinichi joins him and Alessi in the campo. "I thought the girl was very attached to both Signora Kaioh and Signora Tenoh when I saw them together. No matter how difficult and tyrannical Signora Tenoh might have been, her behaviour towards the little girl completely redeemed her shortcomings."

"He lived in Paris with their father, so you said... Do you know what the name of Tenoh's father was and what he was doing for a living?" Shinichi asks with a sense of foreboding.

"Some fans claim her father was a fencing teacher. But I don't know what his name was since I've never been interested in fencing."

So who was the mysterious French agent of the FBI who had insider information about Pandora's Box, which he only wanted to share with Kudo Shinichi, a Japanese detective, rather than with another FBI agent, Ai had asked with mistrust. And Shinichi can still remember the way her eyes widened and her brows furrowed although, at that time, Shinichi had attributed her fleeting expression of disbelief to her amazement at the occupation of M Jean Black, Mr. James' Black's cousin, who was a fencing teacher of Franco-American origin.

x.

 


	11. Part Two: Embarrassing as it is...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Embarrassing as it is...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Embarrassing as it is, Shinichi has to admit that, now that he finds himself alone on Carrara's brown bed sofa with a massive pile of magazines featuring Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru, the only thing he can force himself to do is to scribble into his notebook with the initial goal of keeping a record of this case for later reference although what he is actually doing is jotting down a list of perfectly valid reasons why Ai cannot be in love with Seiya Kou.

First, she has never shown any interest in idols and celebrities in general with the exception of Higo, who is a soccer star with top-notch work ethics and not a silly actor with no sense of fashion and a propensity to rebel against authority even in situations which require seriousness. Second, she was visibly irritated by her "employer" and kicked him under the table whenever he fixed his greedy gaze longingly on her décolleté or her lips. Third, there would be no reason for Seiya to pretend that he was suffering from his unrequited love if they're really an item. And even without all the above-mentioned reasons, Shinichi can't imagine Ai to fall in love with anyone, as she has always been so aloof and distant, so extremely self-contained and untouchable.

Having convinced himself that what she feels for her friend can only be the fondness she feels for stray cats, Shinichi grudgingly sets about the task of taking notes on the case when he is once again overcome with anger at the memory of how she let the singer wrap her scarf around her neck and help her into her coat, how she clung to his arm and accepted his hand as if it was something she was accustomed to. Even if their relationship is only a charade, it has progressed to the stage in which the charade happens naturally, without any detectable effort. And seeing the knowing way they touched each other when she leaned her head against Seiya's shoulder and he responded by wrapping his arm around her waist, Shinichi would have believed that they are really a couple if it hadn't been for Seiya's unpredictable behaviour during the interrogation...

Since he apparently can't force himself to focus on the details of the case (and perhaps his body finally needs a short rest now that it is already past two a.m.), Shinichi decides to lie down on the bed sofa and leaf through the magazines instead.

When he opens the first magazine to the first page, however, Shinichi is struck by the alternative theory that it might have been Seiya who has successfully kept up the appearance of friendship while Ai was actually the one who jeopardized their charade after Shinichi trapped her with the napkin. Taiki Kou's message could have meant that Seiya should keep up the pretense until Taiki has found a way to prevent Tenoh's letter (or mail?) from reaching their agent. And perhaps Seiya hasn't behaved like himself at all throughout the whole interview from the moment he waited for them in front of the backstage café to the moment Ai and he left with the boat so that Shinichi has actually never seen the real Seiya Kou.

Highly improbable as this hypothesis is, it would actually explain everything: from Ai's abnormally amiable behaviour towards Seiya to her open display of affection towards him (after she realized that it was futile to hide their relationship from Shinichi and Carrara) to her understandable irritation when her eccentric boyfriend stubbornly continued to deny their relationship even though she had already given up the charade. And the realization that Ai might be hiding and be living with the idol in Venice just because she is head over heals in love with the guy unsettles Shinichi so much that he instantly dismisses this theory.

He is jumping to conclusions, Shinichi realizes, although he usually never jumps to conclusions. What's wrong with him tonight, he wonders as he is pacing the small living room in an attempt to put the image of their intertwined fingers out of his mind. Accustomed to impersonating Ai, he must have identified himself so much with her that he has begun to take an unhealthy interest in her life, which borders on obsession. Even if she was besotted with a cocky womanizer like Seiya (which is highly unlikely due to the aforementioned reasons), Shinichi knows that her love life should be strictly private and no subject to his investigations. So why does he feel like running to their apartment and putting both Seiya and her through the wringer so that he can finally say with conviction that there has never been anything between them? Is it really jealousy as Carrara has claimed? Or is it only his protectiveness because, after years of cooperation and companionship, he has begun to consider her a close friend even though they aren't even on a first name basis?

Carrara is already fast asleep, as evidenced by the snores Shinichi can hear from the bedroom. Taking advantage of the commissario's pity for him, Shinichi has invited himself over to Carrara's place under the pretense of having a look at Carrara's collection of magazines featuring Tenoh. In reality, Shinichi is waiting for the results of the autopsy because he cannot be sure that Carrara would really inform him about them as soon as he gets them from the medical examiner. The sympathy Carrara feels for Shinichi tonight might have dissolved into thin air by tomorrow after a good night's sleep. And it is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to information on a case Shinichi is not authorized to investigate.

It was an attempt to "kill two birds with one stone," as Gentile would have put it. Doing a bit of research on Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru while waiting for the results of the fingerprints and the autopsy. Shinichi hasn't called Ran, as she is probably fast asleep and he didn't want to wake her up just to tell her that he wasn't going to return to the hotel tonight. Apart from that, it is much easier for Shinichi to work when Ran is not around since the fewer questions Ran asks, the fewer lies Shinichi will have to tell.

But what has he been doing instead of conducting his research after Carrara has excused himself to get some shut-eye? Collecting reasons why Ai cannot be in love… And what's even worse, he feels an overwhelming urge to google couple jewellery on his personal mobile phone instead of continuing the investigation.

Once again Shinichi picks up a magazine and—ignoring the sense of dread which fills him whenever he thinks of Ai's small snug-fit bracelet—tries to focus on Tenoh Haruka's elegantly handsome figure on a motorcycle advertisement when the loud ringing of one of his mobile phones (the phone he usually uses to call his colleagues, friends, and allies) makes him jump.

"Long time no see," says the familiar voice on the other end of the line, and Shinichi smiles at the similarity between the two reddish-haired people who said the same sentence to him during the same night.

"I gather this is urgent," Shinichi remarks with some surprise. Even if Hakuba had expected Shinichi to be in Tokyo, this would be too early for a random catch-up call.

"It is. Otherwise I wouldn't have ringed you out of bed at two twenty-two and thirty-two seconds. But I don't think we should skip the formalities. How do you like Venice? I hope you're having a great time with Mori-san. Your professor hinted that you two are trying to patch things up in the city of love."

This is certainly the very first time that Shinichi has heard Hakuba's voice tremble. As the stoical detective distinguishes himself from all the other former high-school detectives Shinichi has met through his unemotional nature, Shinichi infers that someone close to Hakuba must have recently passed away, most probably either his elderly housekeeper or Watson, his old female falcon.

"The city of love and death, you mean. Ran and I like it enough to stay for another week," Shinichi replies, attentively listening to the background noises. Hakuba is apparently lodging in an industrial part of Venice, as far as Shinichi can tell from the background noises and the landline number on the screen. The dilapidated old bed or chair Hakuba must be sitting on has also just given an ominous sound as Hakuba shifted his position. "On the long run, it's not my cup of tea, though. Too much water and too many bridges. But you don't seem to enjoy your stay." Confident that his deductions are right, Shinichi calmly continues: "Doesn't Scotland Yard pay you enough so that you have to make do with a small pension in Mestre?" In Shinichi's estimation, Hakuba has always had a weakness for luxury and romance despite his philosophical demeanour.

"I'm moving to the Gritti tomorrow and will be staying in Venice until Sunday or Monday," Hakuba declares. As expected, it had to be one of the most expensive hotels in Venice, Shinichi thinks with a grin. "If Mori-san and you would be so kind as to sacrifice an hour or two of your time for me, I'd like us to meet up this evening since we have a lot of catching up to do."

"What happened?" Shinichi asks, tired of the formalities.

"Watson has been shot," Hakuba says through clenched teeth, and the bed gives another unpromising sound as Hakuba gives a heavy sigh.

"Who would do such a thing?" Shinichi exclaims, dismayed at the viciousness of the atrocity. There is no point in shooting an old falcon that is already living on borrowed time. Without his companion, Hakuba seems incomplete.

He hasn't been able to get hold of the culprit yet, Hakuba groans, no longer inclined to hide his fury and frustration. Luckily, Watson will survive even though the doctors are still uncertain whether she will ever be able to fly again. Hakuba's housekeeper has brought her to Kuroba's to recover while Hakuba is now hunting "the little scumbag who has shot her."

According to Hakuba's deductions, _he_ is in Venice at the moment. A dark handsome young man who seems to have turned the heads of all the witnesses Hakuba has talked to until now. "He is in his mid-twenties, moderately tall, lean, and athletic, has short black hair, hazel-blue eyes, and a very gentle voice. They all found him irresistibly charming. The name he used in London was Black. But a waitress at the French restaurant where he had dinner on Monday night told me that he speaks colloquial, accent-free French and that he told her his name was Akira Tenoh."

Naturally, Tenoh Haruka's name sprang to mind when Hakuba learned that Mr Akira Tenoh has embarked on a non-stop flight to Venice. Being the bloodhound he is whenever he faces a real challenge, Hakuba followed the trail to Venice and arrived tonight at ten forty-seven p.m. and forty-five seconds. (The plane arrived twenty-two minutes and forty-five seconds late.) According to what Hakuba could find out so far, a Signor Jean Black arrived in Venice on Wednesday at nine thirty p.m. However, he seemed to have disappeared completely after telling a stewardess during a short flirt that he would be staying in Mestre for a few nights and watch _The Phantom of the Opera_ before going to Tokyo on Monday.

"Before my flight, I called your landline and learned from your professor that you'd be attending the world premiere of Tenoh Haruka's first opera. I suppose you're about to solve the mystery of her sudden death. It's all over the internet."

"I'm still waiting for the results of the autopsy, and I don't think I can tell you more about Tenoh Akira than you already know," Shinichi evasively answers. "I only know he is Tenoh Haruka's older brother, who died about seven or eight years ago."

"He died in a fire eight years ago when Professor Tomoe, Tenoh Haruka's mentor, burned down Infinity, according to my informants," Hakuba says with an air of smugness which Hattori once claimed to be similar to Shinichi's. "But I'm not calling you to ask you about Tenoh Haruka's brother but about her father, M Jean Black. Isn't he a fencing teacher of Franco-American origin? I remember the Detective of the West and you had spent a few days holidaying in Paris with the little reddish-haired girl before we all met up in Osaka. I also remember Hattori-san mentioned fencing when I asked him what the three of you had been doing in Paris. Was M Jean Black an informant of yours? And what does Pandora's Box have to do with this?"

He doesn't know about any connection between their recent cases and Pandora's Box, Shinichi replies. At present, all he can tell Hakuba is that M Jean Black can't be the man who shot Watson, not only because M Black would have had to look over twenty years younger than his age but also because he has already been dead for three years.

"Murdered?"

"No, suicide. After the downfall of the Organization, he cut his wrist to Chopin's Préludes on his forty-seventh birthday."

"Are you sure it was suicide?" asks Hakuba's skeptical voice.

"It certainly seems so. There was nothing which suggested murder. And I know the investigators. I don't think they've overlooked anything."

"Shuu" and "James" have looked into the case to ascertain that it was really suicide, according to Jodie-san. And while there was nothing which would have appeased them more than catching a murderer they could blame his death on, everything pointed towards suicide even though there was no suicide note. There were only M Jean Black's diaries, which strongly indicated that the humorous and energetic fencing teacher had been suffering from a severe depression for many years.

_As revenge for the murder of my wife…_ Shinichi can still remember how the tall, aquiline sportsman bit his lower lips at the remembrance. _She belonged to the seven crows who guarded Pandora's Box. She was executed because she tried to leave the Organization after our marriage... I didn't know about her past before I found parts of her body with the seven crow's emblem burned on her skin._

"Have you already got the results of the fingerprints?" Hakuba asks Shinichi.

"Don't tell me that you already know them," Shinichi gives a disbelieving laugh. Hakuba's efficiency sometimes takes on scary dimensions.

An informant of his regularly meets up with one of the forensics people to watch Gintama online on Livestream, Hakuba gleefully explains. "They also chatted about work tonight and the forensics man hinted that there was a conspicuous lack of fingerprints in Tenoh-san's room."

"No fingerprints at all?" Shinichi frowns. Carrara is going to be livid when he learns about the results of the fingerprints first thing in the morning.

"No fingerprints save one set of fingerprints on the doorknob from the outside, which belongs to a right-handed person. It seems Tenoh Haruka's ghost has wiped all the fingerprints off the door, the wardrobe, the cup, the chair, the table, the dressing table, the mirror, and the vase. There are a few fingerprints on the shelf and on the painting frame which don't belong to Tenoh-san. But you can't arrest anyone with that sort of evidence."

"Those are probably my fingerprints," Shinichi muses. But since he has taken care not to touch the doorknob and the hypochondriac artistic director wore gloves, he is curious about the identity of the person to whom the fingerprints on the doorknob belong.

"If the medical examiner can't find a trace of poison, it's unlikely that we'll ever learn about it," Hakuba remarks. "The case will be closed soon. I heard there is some tension between the commissario investigating the case and the vice-questore, who is having an affair with the daughter of the questore, who is a friend of the mayor, who is an acquaintance of Tenoh Haruka. Nothing beats the bush telegraph in Venice. But what does your beautiful friend say about Tenoh-san's death?"

"My beautiful friend?" Shinichi can barely suppress a sigh. Dealing with an overly curious and strongly motivated Hakuba Saguru is a challenge he would rather not face tonight.

"Miyano-san," Hakuba says with a smile in his voice. "Seiya Kou's secretary. She bears an uncanny similarity to the little redhead who was living at your professor's place before the downfall of the Organization, doesn't she? I heard 'Ai-kun' has gone to New York with 'Conan-kun', and it surprised me somewhat that they both disappeared together after the Organization went down. Well, I wonder what Miyano Shiho knows about Pandora's Box and M Jean Black. She has been going out with Tenoh Haruka on a regular basis ever since she came to Venice with her 'employer' four years ago. And the situation was electric, according to what I learned from one of 'Seiya-sama's' avid fans, who got the latest gossip from the blogs of the ushers at La Fenice. The plane was swarming with his fans, by the way."

"I don't think she has anything to do with this." Shinichi frowns at the phone. "His groupies exaggerate everything. I even saw a few of them camping in front of the opera house before I left."

"So it's not a crime of passion? I heard Miyano-san often left 'Seiya-sama' alone to run off with Tenoh Haruka, and neither Seiya Kou nor Kaioh Michiru seemed to like the situation, according to the rumours. The fans on his fan sites and forums claim that the police suspect that he is the culprit because 'Tenoh-sama' was trying to break them up. I admit I would never have expected a quiet girl like Ai-kun to cause such a commotion."

Despite knowing that Hakuba is only joking, Shinichi feels irritation rising in him at the flippant tone the snob employs to talk about Ai's role in the case.

"As far as I know, she is perfectly straight. Apart from that, Seiya and she aren't an item but only friends. It's only a dumb publicity stunt of his. After the things I've heard from his friends, it seems he is notorious for his childish pranks. It's a very well-acted charade, though. They almost fooled me."

"They aren't an item?" Hakuba asks with audible astonishment in his voice. "But who is the one keeping the screwdriver to her love bracelet if it's not him?"

"Love bracelet?" Shinichi, who has been pacing the room during the talk, sinks down onto the carpet. Even though he has known it was a love bracelet all along, hearing it from Hakuba feels like receiving a kick in the face.

"On the few photos of hers which have leaked on the internet and the one photo an informant sent me, I can see her wearing a small love bracelet. Didn't she wear it tonight?"

"She did, but I don't know anything about couple jewellery." Shinichi is trying his best to keep his voice calm although he would love to smash the phone against the window next to him. What a corny idea for a silly little charade, he thinks as the image of a grinning Haibara Ai leaning against the red curtains of the stage during that autumn night flashes through his mind. It's just like her to make other people buy her pretty things as a payment for her cooperation. But who is he kidding? She obviously has a crush on the crazy singer if she really asked him for a love bracelet.

The two-part bracelet, which is called "love bracelet" because one can't take it off without a screw driver, is supposed to be a symbol for unwavering affection and commitment, Hakuba explains. The bracelet usually comes with a little screw driver, which the wearer will either keep to herself or give her boyfriend as a token of her abiding love. Love bracelets are pretty popular in New York these days, just like Victorian style love necklaces. Shinichi probably knows the latter since they were very popular in Tokyo a few years ago. They come with cage-shaped lockets which look like normal pendants. If the necklace is of high quality, it is almost impossible to see that the pendant is actually a locket at first glance.

"Cage-shaped what?" Despite having taken enough APAH to last for the next ten hours, Shinichi can feel his migraine returning with a vengeance.

"Cage-shaped lockets," Hakuba continues in a perplexed voice. "There is a small Cupid in the cage."

"Why a Cupid?" Shinichi stammers. "Why not a bird or a butterfly or another winged animal?"

Well, one can argue that a Cupid _is_ a winged creature, Hakuba chuckles. A bird or a butterfly in a cage would have symbolized confinement and could have served as a reminder of spiritual freedom. But the Victorian style necklace they are talking about absolutely has to contain a cupid because the name of the necklace is "Prisoner of Love". It is usually given to a woman as a love declaration.

x.

"To be honest, it doesn't look like a charade to me," Saguru tells Kudo, who has been behaving very strangely tonight. But perhaps being with a gorgeous woman like Mori Ran in the same hotel suite is so distracting that even a man like Kudo is unable to think straight? Who knows what kind of romantic moment he has just interrupted, Saguru realizes. He should have known it when he noticed that Kudo seemed irritable. How could Saguru have been so self-absorbed and blind? It's best to leave the two of them alone with each other and end the phone call now.

"As I already said, they're very, very convincing," Kudo sighs. He hasn't been able to utter a normal sentence after Saguru told him about the Prisoner of Love. Clueless and perpetually engrossed in a case as Kudo is, he must have given his beloved Mori Ran a love necklace without knowing its implication.

"Very convincing indeed," Saguru says without conviction. "Well, I reckon you know Miyano-san better than I do. What about meeting up this evening at seven p.m. sharp to do some catching up and to exchange information?"

"All right. Where do you want to meet?"

On the Piazza di San Marco in front of the Doge Palace, the fourth pillar when you come from the lagoon and count towards the Bacino di San Marco, Saguru spontaneously decides with a sidelong glance at the large photo on the screen of his laptop. It might not be the most innovative approach to meet an old ally. But in Saguru's opinion, it is better to choose a place where it's impossible to miss each other than to be creative and having to wait. "We can go somewhere to have dinner and compare notes over a drink or two."

"I just remembered that Chiba Mamoru, Tenoh's stand-in, is staying at the Gritti until Monday." Saguru can hear Kudo leafing through something which sounds like a thin notebook with leather covers. "Maybe you can catch him after breakfast and strike up a conversation with him."

"I will. See you tonight at seven p.m. then. Doge Palace, fourth pillar," Saguru repeats to Kudo in the hope that, no matter how preoccupied Kudo is, he will at least remember the time and the place of their meeting.

Acting? No way, Saguru thinks as he is studying the photo in which Miyano Shiho and Seiya Kou (or Kou Seiya, depending on which name he uses) are leaning against the fourth pillar of the Doge Palace, locking lips and holding each other in an unmistakably romantic embrace. Even though they are half-hidden in the shadow of the pillar and both of them are wearing high-collar coats and hats, their faces are perfectly visible to Saguru when he zooms in. If this is really only a publicity stunt as Kudo has suggested, Miyano-san seems to go out of her way to act her part convincingly enough to pass as Seiya-sama's girlfriend. But since this doesn't seem to have anything to do with the case, Saguru decides to keep his thoughts to himself and to turn his attention to his next task: trying to get five hours of good sleep in this rickety old bed before going to the Gritti and investigating Chiba Mamoru.

x.

* * *

 

**Accustomed to long-haul flights...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Accustomed to long-haul flights since his early childhood, Saguru seldom if ever suffers from jet lag. But now that he is lying on this exceptionally uncomfortable and hard mattress of this exceptionally awful creaky bed, thinking of Watson, who must be wide awake at this time, he discovers after half an hour, two minutes, and 23:14 seconds of tossing and turning that he can't bring himself to get the obligatory five-hour rest despite his undeniable exhaustion.

The whole investigation would be a breeze if Watson were a young woman instead of an old falcon, Saguru thinks, feeling his resentment flaring up at the recollection of the amused and exasperated glances his colleagues had given him when they learned that he was taking a holiday to follow the culprit to Venice. No one but his baaya, Kuroba, and Aoko-kun seemed to be able to comprehend why Saguru actually goes to such lengths to find the bastard who has shot Watson. Getting the manifest of the flight was a pain because he couldn't do it in the usual straightforward way but had to beg and to lie and to wait and to (mis-)use his connections to get the information he would have received with a phone call if Watson were a human being and not "just a pet." _Wouldn't it be much easier to buy a new falcon instead,_ a few colleagues have even dared to suggest. _What are you going to do to your Mr Akira Tenoh after you've found him, anyway? He's probably shot your pet bird by accident, and it's not like you really need compensation since you're swimming in money._

Saguru can clearly imagine all the hackneyed excuses which "Tenoh Akira" could have got away with if he had been arrested: I was practising on the field, aimed at a small branch of the tree and shot the bird by accident... I didn't know that it was someone's pet and that it was still alive... Since I was in a hurry to catch the last train back to the city, I didn't even bother to look at the carcass... I'm extremely sorry for your loss and am going to compensate you for your medical expenses and the inconvenience I caused... In the eyes of the law, what "Mr Tenoh" did was only a minor offence, and Saguru was actually making a fool of himself by taking "the tragic accident" so personally.

Much to his aggravation, Saguru couldn't even find the bullet to determine the caliber, as the scoundrel has removed it from the trunk of the hawthorn where it was stuck after it had grazed Watson's left wing. While Watson was lying on the grass, the cold-blooded monster must have removed the bullet and carved out parts of the trunk, put everything into a plastic bag he had prepared in advance, and gone off with a smirk and the knowledge that Mr Saguru Hakuba, the owner of the falcon he had intentionally shot, would accept the challenge and follow him.

Despite knowing that it could be a trap and that it might be safer to conduct the investigation from London instead of tailing the villain, this challenge is a provocation Saguru cannot resist. During the twenty-four years, two months, five days, thirty-two minutes (and counting) of his life, Saguru has been attracted to various women whose beauty and spunky nature he admired. Nevertheless, Saguru can say without a shadow of a doubt that he has never felt anything for any of them which comes close to the unconditional love he only feels for Watson.

There are many sorts of loves with varying degrees of trust, commitment, care, attachment, fascination, attraction, and lust. But is there any love which is purer than the love of an owner for a pet like a falcon? Saguru's love for Watson is—from a moral point of view—better than Kuroba's love for Aoko-kun, Kudo's love for Mori-san, or Miyano-san's love for 'Seiya-sama' simply because Saguru's love for Watson is essentially selfless. A falcon, unlike a dog or a cat, is an animal you can't even cuddle with. You can only take care of it, teach it a few skills and enjoy its magnificence. It is love in its purest essence, and Saguru wonders whether he will ever meet a woman who—on a purely platonic level—can trigger in him the deep sense of belonging he only feels for Watson.

As fate had it, the short story Saguru read on the plane (after the talkative Seiya-fan next to him had finally fallen asleep and Saguru could turn his attention to his Decameron again) was the story of Federigo degli Alberighi, the lovesick fool who served his unrequited love his beloved falcon as a meal (after he had squandered his wealth on courting her so that his magnificent falcon and his small estate was all he had left). And while Hakuba had studied countless mutilated corpses and attended innumerable funerals of more or less close relatives without shedding a single tear, the short story about the poor falcon who was betrayed by its foolish owner made him cry so hard that he almost woke up his sleeping neighbour.

Clicking the photo of Miyano Shiho and Seiya Kou away with a raised eyebrow (if Kudo claims they are acting, they must be acting because Kudo doesn't only know Ai-kun better than Saguru does but is also a great detective who—without substantial proof for his theory—would never jump to the conclusion that their relationship is only a publicity stunt), Saguru proceeds to check his mails and his messages in the hope that his informants have sent him some information which could throw a new light on the mystery of Tenoh Akira's sudden resurrection from the grave and his sister's sudden death at La Fenice.

Knowing Kudo, the mystery will be solved in no time, and Saguru is glad that they are working together again after three years, eleven months, one day, and thirty-two minutes since Pandora's Box. Despite the disastrous outcome, Saguru values the experiences he gained and the unlikely friendship he has formed with Kuroba and Kudo. Impersonating Kudo and Hattori-kun with the help of Kudo's mother, Kuroba and Saguru distracted the Organization's spies so that Kudo and Hattori-kun could open Pandora's Box, the secret storage of the Organization's files on the seven crows and the history of the Organization. Helping Kudo bring down the Organization was for both Saguru and Kuroba an exciting challenge. As a matter of course, Saguru felt deep sorrow at Hattori-kun's death just as anyone else who knew Hattori-kun did (the unexpected storm prevented Kudo from returning to the ship in time so that Hattori-kun, who had been staying on the ship to back up the files, drowned in an attempt to leave the ship before the bombs exploded). But the Detective of the West, impetuous and hot-headed as he was, always struck Saguru as someone who would die a heroic death because people like him usually don't live long.

To Saguru, Pandora's Box is a pleasant memory of a time of rapid mental and emotional growth. And this thought finally turns on the light in Saguru's head and makes him realize that Pandora's Box must be a traumatic memory associated with failure and death to Kudo.

With a twinge of conscience, Saguru becomes conscious of the fact that he was extremely impolite and inconsiderate, waking Kudo up in the middle of the night and cheerfully poking into Kudo's old wound just because he wanted information on M Jean Black and also felt the wish to talk to a person as level-headed as Kudo. Patient, well-mannered, incorruptible, hard-working, and oddly calming in his bluntness and his brutal honesty, Kudo is the fellow detective Saguru likes most, the one baaya would describe as a diamond in a perfect cut among all the less valuable gemstones, fakes, and pebbles that Saguru meets every day. Hopefully Kudo's understandable irritation at Saguru's conduct is nothing a good dinner and a few drinks can't dispel. And if they are lucky, they both will have solved their cases by Sunday night at the latest so that they can celebrate their victories with the famous Venetian _spritz_ Saguru has often heard about but has never tasted.

Observant as he is, Kudo naturally didn't need to ask Saguru why the forensics expert claimed that the fingerprints on the doorknob of Tenoh Haruka's dressing room belonged to a right-handed person, Saguru recalls while rereading his old mails and jotting down short summaries of their contents and the exact time of their arrival into his hardbound Christian Lacroix (the Voyage edition this time). Left-handed people usually don't use their right hand to open a door which swings open to the left. On the other hand, even right-handed people seldom use their right hand for such a door. And it is likely that whoever placed the fingerprints of their right hand on that doorknob was carrying something in their left hand or didn't use their left hand for other reasons—if they really placed their fingers on that doorknob by accident after the culprit has removed all the fingerprints. Some people use their body in a random way which is unexplainable to a rational mind. In contrast to Adriano, the Gintama-loving forensics man, Saguru is positive that the owner of the fingerprints might as well be a left-handed person.

At this point of the investigation, the fingerprints are still irrelevant. The real mystery lies in the cause of Tenoh Haruka's death, a question to which probably only the culprit(s) and Miyano Shiho (who must be the scientist who had shrunk Kudo and turned him back to his normal state again) know the answer.

A swoosh and a clink announce the arrival of a new mail with the subject "Sorry for the misinformation" from Natalie, the informant who has told Saguru about the fingerprints.

"Haruka Tenoh's fingerprints were all over the room," Natalie corrects herself. The forensics expert and she had misunderstood each other because the forensics man actually meant that there were "no fingerprints" other than Tenoh's fingerprints (meaning that there were no fingerprints of another person on the door, the wardrobe, the cup, the chair, the table, the dressing table, the mirror, and the vase) while Natalie took his statement literally and thought that there hadn't been any fingerprints at all. According to Natalie (who is apt to either overstate or understate everything to tweak the situation to her advantage), these "little misunderstandings" happen quite often during their chats. As the forensics expert is not only too lazy to type full sentences but is also too lazy to type the full names (preferring to use initials instead), Natalie almost attributed all of his wild stories about Kino Makoto (who owns a beautiful little flower shop he frequents and sometimes chats with him when they stumble across each other in Harry's Bar) to Tenoh Haruka's live-in girlfriend Kaioh Michiru: "I even believed for half an hour that Michiru Kaioh, the perfect lady, was really the one who regularly won all the bets against the heaviest drinkers in Venice..."

Taken aback, Saguru sits up in his bed with a loud creak. He should have guessed that there must have been fingerprints in Tenoh Haruka's dressing room, as the forensics people would have told the commissario leading the investigation about the lack of fingerprints immediately (while they were still on the crime scene) if there hadn't been any on the cup, on the chair, and on the table. This is a clue he would never have missed in another situation if his emotions hadn't been running high, Saguru realizes in dismay. Distracted by his pretty girlfriend, Kudo himself doesn't seem to be in great form tonight either because, thinking back to Kudo's lack of reaction to Saguru's words when Saguru mentioned the fingerprints, Saguru can't help but get the impression that Kudo has missed the clue as well.

x.


	12. Part Two: Much to her relief, Shiho deduces...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Much to her relief, Shiho deduces...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Much to her relief, Shiho deduces from Seiya's surreptitious kiss on her thumb that he has finally slipped out of his latest role—a flawless rendition of "Tenoh Haruka in a philosophical, sanctimonious mood"—and returned to normalcy. But even though his rueful smile and the way he rubs her cold hands disarm her in an instant, her vengeful side is not inclined to admit defeat so soon.

"Welcome back, 'Signor Seiya Kou'," she wryly notes. "You've had a great time making fun of me, I suppose... Hopefully you're going to like the aftermath as well."

It wasn't a prank this time, he hurriedly assures her in a desperate attempt to escape the impending punishment. Wasn't she the one who told him to keep up the pretense no matter what? He also tried to be perfectly amiable towards Kudo, to show himself from his best side while pretending to be in an unrequited love. But then the whole charade escalated because he was bored out of his mind by his bland part of the saintly idol sharing his sanctuary with his friend. To make matters worse, commissario Carrara's facial expressions after she drew the napkin out of his pocket amused him so much that he "sort of" got carried away...

To the naked eye—and even under her skeptical, scrutinizing gaze—he looks perfectly convincing and honest. But knowing Seiya's cavalier attitude to the truth, Shiho is certain that his justifications, translated into Kudo's _The One Truth_ , should be put this way:

Even though he didn't really intend to play a prank on her, the urge to play a prank on someone (anyone would have answered his needs) suddenly overcame him when he stepped out of the dressing room and assumed his role in a genuine effort to keep up their (usually half-hearted) charade. Knowing that she wanted him to make a positive impression on Kudo, he tried to keep his continual switching subtle in the hope that Kudo would be bewildered enough to be intrigued but not disturbed enough to become suspicious of him. Despite himself, however, things got out of hand when she took his napkin: The expression on her face when she realized she had blindly walked into Kudo's obvious trap, added to commissario Carrara's continual misreading of the situation, was so hysterical that it inspired him to take it up a notch and play a prank on all of them.

"You've seldom been _that_ insufferable, not even when you impersonated Tenoh-san and fueled the rumours about her and me by kissing me in public!" she snaps, frowning at the memory. She had only told him to keep up the pretense so that the police wouldn't immediately jump to conclusions and label him the culprit. If she had known that he'd leap at the chance to go through his whole 'repertoire' and present himself as a lunatic of Stinger's caliber to Kudo, she would never have suggested it to him.

"You knew exactly that it was pointless to continue even before I took your napkin." Shiho colours with anger as she recalls commissario Carrara's calculated insult. "Something was definitely wrong with Kudo as well. I'd never have thought that he would resent me so much that he would side with that misogynist of a commissario against me!"

Kudo didn't side with anyone, Seiya asserts, turning his head further to peer at the small retreating figures of Kudo and the commissario in the distance. "I fear his interest in us is purely personal."

"I don't think so." She has automatically followed his gaze and turned round to Kudo, who is now a faraway ghostly grey shadow beautifully illuminated by a street lamp. "Kudo has never been very much interested in other people's private lives. He only uses his skills to solve mysteries and to prevent crime."

"You told me Kudo was lacking in the emotional department," says Seiya thoughtfully with a last backward glance before he turns his attention to her again and leans into the seat with a sigh. "I really wanted to believe you instead of Haruka-san." But now that he has seen Kudo and her together and noticed how Kudo reacted to his remark he made about the opera when he was still stuck in Tenoh-san's mind, he wonders whether she is the slow one...

"Until then, I thought he was only overprotective," he continues uneasily. "If I had known it, I'd never have said such a thing. We should tell him the truth when he visits us no matter whether Taiki can delete the mails from Shizuka-san's account or not. That way, no one will get hurt."

She raises her brow at him, delighted by his delusion, a proof that she must be so irresistible in his eyes that he projects his feelings for her on any other man who crosses her path. Simultaneously, she acknowledges in exasperation that his misplaced sympathy for the person he wrongly suspects to be his rival must stem from the fact that he himself had been in an unrequited love for years before he met her.

"Are you jealous because he hugged me goodbye?" she mocks, satisfied that he has finally received his just punishment. Confiding in each other to the point of telling each other all about previous love interests has proven to do more harm than good, for she, too, always feels this irrational nagging ache whenever she hears him utter the little nickname he still uses for Chiba Usagi whereas he has never employed any term of endearment for her. It is only fair that he should suffer now that Kudo has come to Venice. By sending off the wrong signals, Kudo has unwittingly turned into the very first man who has ever troubled her exasperatingly non-jealous boyfriend. Admittedly, Shiho herself was staggered by Kudo's impulsive and romantic gesture at first before it hit her that, a) Kudo must be extremely relieved that she is still alive and b) he has only done it as an act for the commissario in retaliation against her intolerable sort-of-husband, who was having fun at their expense during the interrogation.

"Not in the least," Seiya indignantly denies, since back then he still thought Kudo only did it to provoke him. "Although I noticed you enjoyed it way too much. I only hope you don't consider dumping me for someone whose cooking—according to your own words—is even worse than mine."

"May I ask what you two are purring in the backseat?" Hino-san's irritated voice interrupts them. With a twinge of guilt, Shiho realizes that they have completely forgotten about Hino-san, who must feel left out while they're immersed in their little lover's quarrel.

"We're only comparing Kudo's cooking skills to mine," Seiya shamelessly bends the truth, "and we can't decide whose is worse because I char the steaks while he burns them to a cinder outside but leaves the inside bloody."

"What has he been up to again?" Skeptical about the truthfulness of Seiya's report, Hino-san shoots Shiho a curious glance through the rearview mirror.

"Seiya got the brilliant idea to parody all of his acquaintances in one single performance, messing up the investigation and making a fool of me." In a petty attempt to get even with her unmanageable life partner of four turbulent years, Shiho mercilessly adds, "He has actually dared to imitate you as well."

Hino-san, however, obviously feels more inclined to side with Seiya than with Shiho, judging from her slightly breathless but genuine laugh.

"I'd have loved to see it," she beams at him through the mirror. "Did they like it?"

"Unfortunately no." Seiya pauses to flash Shiho a victorious smirk before he tells Hino-san in a fit of Kudo-like inappropriate frankness, "Although that only means my imitation of your typical scowl was spot-on."

At the sight of Hino-san's famous eye-brow-twitch, he realizes his blunder and quickly changes the topic. "Sorry for the nonsense about the 'opera' earlier." He gives her a propitiatory pat on her woolly hat. Of course it is the form and not the character which usually determines how a musical piece is categorized. Hino-san is actually right and Tenoh-san's _An Opera for One Singer and Piano_ —despite its operatic character—is officially not an opera but a song cycle.

A name doesn't say much about the character of the piece itself. It's just the same with people: The titles and names by which they're addressed seldom say anything about their true nature, Hino-san, who has a philosophical streak, muses. On the other hand, it is impossible to categorize people according to character because the personality of a person is much too complex to be reduced to a single phrase.

"I did notice it wasn't like you at all to care so much about a musical term. But who were you parodying at that time?"

"Haruka-san. Her commanding presence is extremely effective," Seiya replies while Shiho wonders whether Hino-san, too, can detect the subtle irony in his voice. "You should have seen the portiere's face when I used her authoritative gaze on him. I'm going to imitate her again the next time my fans try to rob me of my luggage."

They have finally arrived at Hino-san and Aino-san's place. But Hino-san, who has just brought the boat to a halt, hesitates as if she doesn't feel inclined to go home.

"I miss her dreadfully," she suddenly groans, the corners of her mouth slightly quivering. "And that even though Mamoru-san has told me all about her lies... I've grown accustomed to seeing her walk around, giving everyone advice and playing little snippets of melodies on the piano."

"That's only natural," Shiho tries to soothe her, distraught because the sight of a crying Hino Rei would be too disturbing for her to handle tonight. Vaguely, she wonders whether Hino-san, who is very perceptive about people, knows about Tenoh-san's latest scheme and feels sorrow for her nonetheless or whether she has been deceived like most of Tenoh-san's other friends. "She will be missed by everyone."

The hackneyed statement—uttered in a moment of panic—has been exclaimed a bit too enthusiastically, and Shiho shudders at the audible hypocrisy in her voice. Perhaps she, too, will miss Tenoh-san in the distant future if she can't help it. However, she is certain that she does not miss her now.

"Not by me!" Seiya's voice—calm but tinged with suppressed anger—resonates through the eerie stillness of the night, steadying her tattered nerves with its clarity. "I'm not going to miss her a bit. Neither her superior air nor her total disregard for other people's feelings nor her well-meant 'help', which usually came when one absolutely didn't need it."

"How, do you think, will Michiru-san cope with this?" asks Hino-san, who seems to have regained her composure and is now rubbing her arms. She is visibly more affected by the damp November air than Seiya and Shiho despite her shawl and her woolly hat. But notwithstanding the cold, she is trying to linger on.

"I don't know. But since she is tough enough to have endured living with Haruka-san for so many years, she will be tough enough to live without her as well."

For a moment, all of them fall silent, and Shiho hopes that Hino-san is not going to use the word "corpse" as a cue to address the unpleasant topic they have implicitly agreed not to touch upon.

"Did she really choose the title of the 'opera' to make fun of you two?" Hino-san inquires instead. She must be delaying the inevitability of seeing Aino-san, who is going to ask questions about what happened tonight.

"She had the audacity to suggest that our cohabiting is only a little fling without strings attached as long as we're still keeping it secret and don't sign any legal papers," Seiya recalls. "It's ironic that she out of all people would put so much emphasis on marriage as an institution."

"I think she only envied you," Hino-san points out. "You two can get married in contrast to Michiru-san and her. Not getting something one wants usually makes it all the more desirable."

"Maybe... It wouldn't have disturbed me at all if she had only taunted us. But she also sent Shizuka-san a mail telling her that I've been living with Shiho instead of meeting her secretly in some run-down pension until Yaten and Taiki's comeback as Shizuka-san suggested." He gives a short, incredulous laugh. "After all these years and only one month before their comeback, she suddenly decided to rat on me." Throwing a glance at the screen of his mobile phone, he shows Shiho the new message from Taiki-san with a worried look. "It's game over, so it seems. She didn't only send the mail to Shizuka-san but also the editors of thirty-nine different newspapers. It's just like her to do everything so thoroughly."

"It doesn't matter," Shiho shrugs, squeezing his hand she is still holding. In a way, she feels relieved that Seiya and she no longer need to hide although she still breaks out in a cold sweat when she imagines the imminent media attention and the obligatory death threats. Pandora's Box is deactivated, as she only found out tonight, and her biggest problem now will be how to evade Kudo when he grills her about the happenings of four years ago because she can't tell him the truth under these circumstances.

No sooner did her mind wind back to the Detective of the West than her headaches—dulled but not completely erased by two capsules of APAH—threaten to worsen. He seems to take part in her life as a haunting presence that would always return to her when she believes she has finally learned to forget. As always, Shiho pushes the unwanted memory of his reproachful gaze away by trying to convince herself once again that there had been nothing she could have done to prevent his death—consoling herself with the thought that, due to a stroke of luck, Kudo didn't manage to come back in time so that she doesn't have to mourn for him as well.

Noticing her anxiety, Seiya pulls her closer to him and strokes her hair in mesmerizingly slow movements. Even though she can never guess how he does it, he knows instinctively when she wants to be touched and never lets social conventions or inconvenient timing prevent him from doing it, a rare gift, which makes up for the silly pranks he regularly plays on her.

"When everything is in ruins, things can only get better." Hino-san turns to them with a genial smile. "If you'd told me the 'opera' was meant to be insulting, I'd never have sung it." But now that she has spoiled both her debut and her voice for nothing, she has got rid of her stage fright completely, which can be considered a very promising start for a career.

She hasn't ruined anything, Seiya reassures her. The "opera" was, from a musical point of view, only a demanding singing exercise. "But because it's Haruka-san's work, most critics will write that it 'deserves the highest commendation.'" Neither Chiba-san nor Hino-san are likely to get scathing critiques, especially because the Italian critics will be in an exceptionally generous mood after the untimely demise of the composer.

"In any case, you need to rest before the musical if you want your Christine to be convincing," he says, as Hino-san doesn't show any inclination to leave. "Good night."

Oddly enough, Hino-san only regards him silently, with a steady inquiring gaze.

"May I borrow him for a few minutes?" she asks at last without taking her eyes from his face to look at Shiho. Noticing their undisguised lack of enthusiasm, she sighs and rolls her eyes. "Come on, only five minutes. I'm going to return him in one piece, I swear."

"Why do you ask me?" Shiho frees herself from his comfortable arm and leans back to make space for him to climb out of the boat. "It's not like he is my puppy."

"But he might as well be," Hino sighs again as she scrambles out of the boat and resolutely pulls at Seiya's coat while he reluctantly follows her to the door.

Climbing onto the passenger seat, Shiho shakes off her shoes and tucks up her sore feet beneath her knees before she watches the two of them talk in hushed voices with a sense of déjà vu. Why is it so difficult to take notice of someone we don't love, she wonders, thinking back to the moment she told Seiya that Hino-san might harbour serious feelings for him and he only brushed it off as a celebrity crush and a misunderstanding.

Kudo, too, never noticed, she thinks to herself, wondering how the past years have been for him and his Ran-nee-chan. Tenoh-san, self-righteous and never considerate enough to stay out of other people's private lives, once openly accused Shiho of fickleness when she discovered that her interest in Seiya wasn't only limited to his acting and his voice. But in Shiho's opinion, one can't compare two loves which are so different from each other that there is no competition between them at all.

Kudo is, even after these four years, still her idea of perfection, the scale on which she measures all the people she meets. Nevertheless, she had long reconciled herself to the thought that he was out of her reach even before they entered that cursed cabin. And she can't say whether it was the exceptional circumstances under which they met or the extreme stress which asked for relief... But when Seiya unceremoniously (and in the literal sense) crashed into her life, scooped her up from her wooden box, and gingerly placed her into Tenoh-san's motorboat while gleefully screaming against the storm into her ear that the weather wasn't "nice enough for a swim," it was what she would later describe as instant recognition of kindred spirits or love at first sight.

"Kindred spirits" (just as "love at first sight") must be an exaggeration concocted by an infatuated mind, considering how she treated him in the beginning and how difficult it still is for her to distinguish between when he is only acting and when he tells the truth. In contrast to Kudo, whom she could always read like an open book (the blunt, direct way in which he faced the world was undoubtedly part of the attraction!), Seiya is still a complete mystery to her because he always comes up with absurd ideas her rational mind would reject. But maybe this character trait of his—Shiho watches in amusement how he tries to pay attention to Hino-san while his shoe is tracing imaginary outlines of the Phantom's mask on the pavement—is part of the attraction as well.

She was very open about the two of them in her last mail (at least as open as she can ever allow herself to be), admitting to the Professor and Kudo that she had "met someone" she is now living with: _As you must have deduced from my gushing praise of the picturesque bridges and gondolas here in Venice, not even I can withstand these bothersome feelings forever._ [Et cetera, et cetera...] _In contrast to a certain detective, he is an absolute airhead whenever his mind is in default mode although he surprises me at times when he suddenly activates his few living braincells._ [Et cetera, et cetera.] _All in all, I think Ayumi-chan will find him irresistible. I'm going to introduce him to you this Christmas. Would you like to visit us in Venice or would you prefer us to visit you in Beika?_

The mail finished with further elaborations on why not only Ayumi-chan would like her lovely boyfriend. And Shiho is selfishly glad that this particular mail never reached its recipients because the Professor, Kudo, and even the Detective Boys would have teased her for the rest of her life and never looked upon her as their aloof, self-possessed, and slightly intimidating Haibara Ai again.

 _Don't write to me from your mail accounts,_ she had implored the Professor in her first two letters. _Please only use the ones I've created for Kudo and you and don't ever call me on the phone. This letter and the next one_ —the one containing the passwords— _will be delivered by an old acquaintance at Infinity I can trust. But please destroy them after reading and don't try to contact her afterwards because you would put all of us in danger..._

In a rush of anger, Shiho can see herself in the backstage café again, kicking the bag on the floor aside, shutting the door with a trembling hand, whipping around to face her nonchalantly smiling, tea-sipping opponent with barely controlled cold fury.

 _It was you all along, wasn't it? I should have known that something was amiss when neither of them insisted on visiting me during all these years._ Naturally, she has noticed that something was different about Kudo's writing style but attributed it to his girlfriend's influence. However, the Professor's mails were such excellent imitations that she was completely taken in.

_Since you saved me, I thought you were someone I could trust. How dare you deceive me like that, you depraved little traitor?_

_Ah, are we talking about "trust" now, about being a "depraved little traitor?"_ Her cool teal eyes roamed Shiho's face in sardonic amusement while her long fingers playfully turned the small red card to and fro. _You know, it's brilliantly funny to hear those words from your mouth. Living with someone in a never-ending engagement and lying to him for almost four years... What, do you think, will he do when I tell him about your little secret? My bet is he will abandon you at once. I also wonder what Kudo will think when he learns about it. Will he be disgusted or only disappointed? Which of them will be able to forgive you for the things you did? Let's find out whether there is a grain of truth in the myth that love really conquers all._

x.


	13. Part Two: The depressing truth about...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**The depressing truth about...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

The depressing truth about friendship is that you can be friends with someone for over nine years and still won't be able to read his mind as well as his lover of four years can, Rei reluctantly acknowledges as she recalls Seiya-kun's little "prank." As a matter of course, Rei did notice that Seiya-kun seemed oddly out of character and that Shiho-san looked as if she would have wrung his gorgeous neck with relish if he hadn't managed to appease her with his contrite smile and his kiss. Nevertheless, Rei would have dismissed it as one of his more quirky moments and left it at that if Shiho-san hadn't told her what was going on.

To be fair, Shiho-san had much more time to study his small "performance." And Rei firmly believes that Shiho-san would have lost to Seiya-kun as well if he had really wanted to deceive her. Akane-sensei, whose _Detective Boy Holmes_ won several Japanese Drama Academy Awards, once claimed that Seiya-kun had a natural aptitude for hypnotizing himself. And despite the award Seiya-kun got for Best Supporting Actor (Taiki-san got the award for Best Main Actor and was celebrated as the ideal Young Sherlock Holmes), Akane-sensei swore that she would never even contemplate casting Seiya-kun in a villainous role again.

As an aspiring singer and actress suffering from a predictable weakness for glamour despite her claim to ignore the shallow surface, Rei had been gorging herself on information about Seiya-kun ever since his debut and hung on his every word like the rest of her small group of friends at Juuban High School, who were all fascinated by his voice and his air of unrestrained freedom. But it wasn't until she watched him perform onstage with the fresh wound he had received while protecting Usagi, who had been targeted by one of the Organization's snipers, his eyes bright with fever, which not only his fans but also his uninformed agent attributed to his passion for the song, that Rei knew he could fool his friends as easily as his audience and that Haruka-san was right when she claimed that Usagi's new admirer and friend was dangerous.

With time, Rei's wariness gave way to admiration, and even Haruka-san's mistrust of Seiya-kun, which bordered on paranoia, yielded to respect. For some obscure reason, however, the developing friendship between Haruka-san and Seiya-kun abruptly cooled when the perverted sleuth brought down the Organization. The renowned detective Haruka-san admired (a fact which proves that traitors of a feather flock together) launched a bungled cloak-and-dagger operation, which culminated in him leaving his two friends with the files on Pandora's Box. In a poor attempt to phone the FBI for assistance and to meet up with his long-distance girlfriend for what Mina-chan suspects to be a quickie on the shore in one fell swoop, the master sleuth let the rendezvous distract him so much that he completely forgot the time despite knowing that his best friends were stuck in the middle of the sea with enough explosives to blow up the whole isle.

Thus Seiya Kou (who has always loved to court death and was surfing during a weather which would have granted him eternal sleep if he hadn't been born under a lucky star) fell in love with Miyano Shiho after a foolish rescue mission, which secured him the role of her gallant hero and enabled him to sweep Sleeping Beauty off her feet during the few days she spent at Haruka-san's seaside house recovering from her wound—a small souvenir of her encounter with Vodka, which, in retrospect, equalled the prick of a rose or a spindle...

Meanwhile, Rei was studying music and acting in blissful ignorance, assured that Seiya-kun was so heartbroken about Usagi's marriage and so weary of the adoring females tailing him wherever he went that he would naturally stay single for years to come. But even if it hadn't been for Seiya-kun, Rei would have despised the sleazy detective, whom she, until a few hours ago, had never met, as he callously betrayed his friends and lacked the backbone to drive out into the storm to search for them. Having been betrayed all her life—first by her politician-father, who dumped her at her grandfather's shrine after her mother's death, and then by "friends" from her private school who repeatedly stabbed her in the back out of envy—the only thing Rei can never forgive is betrayal.

Be that as it may... Although she didn't notice that Seiya-kun parodied Haruka-san, Rei is smart enough to add two and two together after all the things she has seen and guess the reason why he was in such an impish mood. She could blurt out her discovery to him now but prefers to delay the confrontation until later, as he is likely to run off afterwards. And there are still other questions Rei would like to ask because she has been holding them back for too long.

"How long," she indicates Shiho-san, who has just made herself comfortable on the passenger seat of the boat, "has this secret love affair of yours been going on?"

There it is, the first question, whose answer she already knows, as she has done her homework. Hearing it from his mouth, she predicts, will give her a sense of closure. In order to pretend her interest in the two of them is superficial and impersonal at best, Rei makes a determined but unsuccessful effort to sound cheery and frivolous.

Four years by next month, he readily admits. And she wonders whether she should feel disappointed or relieved now that he has dropped the charade completely. But he wouldn't call it an 'affair' since the word conveys a distorted impression of their relationship. After all, it's not like either of them were married to another person.

There is no stigma attached to cohabiting, at least not in this country in our time, Rei points out. "It would have been easier for you two if you hadn't tried to hide it. Passing her off as your secretary makes people think it's some sort of illicit affair you both are ashamed of. Mina-chan has even suggested that your girlfriend must be married to another man and that you've eloped with her because she couldn't get divorced for some reason."

He didn't intentionally pass her off as his secretary at first, Seiya-kun has the decency to blush. And from the few words in which he recounts the circumstances, Rei can imagine the situation vividly. Mina-chan and Mako-chan, having learned from Michiru-san that Seiya-kun had bought her apartment, dropped in on him without prior notice on a Sunday morning to celebrate his arrival in Venice. Shiho-san was still fast asleep when Seiya-kun, distracted by the new song he was working on, opened the door for them without considering the consequences. And when his guests asked him the redundant questions who the sleepy strawberry-blonde, who had just emerged from his bedroom, was and what she was doing in his apartment, he had only grinned and (much to Shiho-san's dismay) declared that her name was Miyano Shiho and that she was taking care of his paperwork for him before he casually went about the business of making coffee.

The joke took on a life of its own during a visit at La Fenice when Mina-chan introduced Shiho-san as Seiya-kun's secretary to Gentile, who has been stubbornly defending her against the rumour that she was Seiya-kun's girlfriend ever since. Half-shocked and half-amused at the realization that most people had begun to regard Shiho-san as Seiya-kun's secretary-friend he was sharing his apartment with, Shiho-san and Seiya-kun decided to play along...

"Until tonight, it was only a running joke for us," he gives Rei an apologetic smile, drawing invisible doodles on the pavement with the tip of his left shoe as he sometimes does when he has to stand motionless for too long. In reality, they didn't put much effort into the act since they were sure all his closest friends and even casual acquaintances (in short, everyone who knows him personally) have seen through it. Alluding to Rei's remark tonight when he threw her the keys, he mischievously adds: "Although I denied it because you always asked me when other people could overhear us, you've guessed it as well."

It can't be overlooked since you'll always kiss her in the open whenever you believe that nobody will notice, Rei thinks but bites back the retort, as it carries an unhappy nuance of accusation she doesn't want it to have.

"I wasn't sure since you told me you'd marry her immediately but she wouldn't accept you," she says instead. Flashing him a crooked grin, she jokes, "I hoped it was unrequited since I'd already mapped out my future with you. It would have boosted my career if we had hooked up after the musical, or so I thought. It would have been the picture-perfect romance if you had played along."

"No, it wouldn't. My reputation wouldn't have done your career any good." He brushes off (or acknowledges?) her confession in disguise with a fleeting smile before he lets his gaze drift to Shiho-san again. "But it's true that she told me she wouldn't ever marry me."

Why not? Aren't they planning to stay together in the future, Rei inquires. From what he said about Haruka-san's letter to his agent, she inferred Shiho-san and he were only hiding their relationship from the public until Yaten-kun and Taiki-san's comeback this Christmas before dropping the bomb on the fans.

"I could have sworn you two would run off to get married by New Year at the latest."

"Of course we're going to make it public some time after their comeback. But since Shiho has something against marriage in general and I won't pester her for it, we won't ever marry."

"Just cut it out and tell me the truth!" Rei snarls, knowing that he won't mind her bluntness, especially not when she is so exhausted and sleep-deprived like she is now. "Are you two in danger? Is that the real reason why she is so low key?"

"It depends on how you define 'danger,'" he muses, imperturbable in his Peter-Pan-like cheeriness. "And it doesn't matter since she won't marry me whether we're in danger or not."

"'Danger' as 'being stalked and threatened and possibly sniped by someone in the middle of the night.'"

"Only in the first year after the explosion, but that was to be expected. As long as no paranoid psycho decides to hunt down all the boat owners in the vicinity of the ship when it exploded, we should be fairly safe from now on."

"Aren't you a bit afraid of being sniped one day when you're on the way to La Fenice or to the airport?" Rei asks, unnerved by his nonchalance.

"From time to time, especially now that life is so good," he admits, apparently a little amused at himself, before his eyes fix an invisible spot in the distance and darken. "But they wouldn't achieve anything with that, would they?" And dying is actually not that horrifying compared to the thought that they could accidentally snipe Shiho while targeting him. Not even the assassins are what they once were now that they are all underpaid.

"I can give you a hand whenever you want. If you ever need someone to protect her or watch your back, just give me a call."

In response to her impulsive offer, he only shakes his head with a faint smile. He will accept any help he can get if the situation calls for it but he hopes that Shiho and he won't ever need her, he says, and she shouldn't do anything to give off the impression that she is more involved in the affair than she already is since neither of them wants her next main role to be that of a corpse.

Knowing that pressing him to accept her assistance is futile if he doesn't want it, Rei doesn't even try. She is convinced that he will eventually let her help him when it comes to saving his precious girlfriend's neck, as he is not the type to sacrifice himself and his loved ones out of misplaced pride. Apart from that, the situation seems calm enough for him to relax since he would have asked Yaten-kun and Taiki-san to come to Venice if it were sticky.

"Apropos corpse," Rei lightly remarks and could have bitten her tongue off for the clumsy transition. She has begun to doubt that moral judgement can be fixed absolutely after what happened tonight, she tentatively begins. A few years ago, she'd have been horrified, but now—

"I think everyone has the right to end their life whenever they don't want it anymore."

"Do you... really think it was suicide?" She calmly meets his gaze.

"What else should it have been?"

His eyes, of a very dark blue in the light of the outdoor wall lantern, are unreadable and distant, showing her clearly that she is trespassing. The wind has risen and the temperature has noticeably dropped since they left the boat. Taking a step towards the door and fishing her key out of her pocket while pulling her woolly hat down to her frozen ears, Rei tries to readjust her face and smile.

"Afraid of facing Minako-chan?" Seiya-kun gives her a sympathetic look, as it can't have escaped him that she doesn't want to let him go.

No, Rei replies truthfully, as Mina-chan, who couldn't attend the "opera" tonight because she didn't want to pass her cold on to Rei, will be fast asleep by now. Nevertheless, Rei knows what Seiya-kun's gaze implies. Mina-chan will undoubtedly cry over Haruka-san's death even after Rei has told her about Haruka-san's betrayal. And listening to Mina-chan's ramblings would mean to be reminded of Haruka-san's unique style and elegance, her single-minded devotion to a greater cause, and her immense, almost irresistible natural charm.

x.

"Thanks a lot for driving," Seiya-kun smiles with an air of finality. "You really need your rest now. Good night."

"Tomorrow, well, today... before the musical... Can I talk to you in private when you've got a moment? It's about _the scene_."

"Why don't we talk about it now?" he asks with a thoughtful glance in Shiho-san's direction.

Although he is probably right and it's much more sensible to talk about their dreaded final scene now when they are more or less alone than later in the opera house when they could be overheard by the cast and the staff, the sight of Shiho-san watching the two them with sharp mistrustful eyes makes it hard for Rei to find the right words to address the matter.

She had the impression he really enjoyed the production at first, Rei takes the plunge. He himself told her that Mr Gray is an outstandingly agreeable director... "But your acting is deteriorating because your enthusiasm is waning rapidly these days. I know you can be terrific if you want to. So why are you tuning out? This role is really important for me. And I don't know anyone who fakes the kiss during the performance. People are already laughing about us for faking it during the rehearsals, you know."

Naturally, he knows very well that she knows the reason, and Rei would be much more straightforward in her frustration if it weren't for her consideration for Shiho-san. Living with an actor like him must be hard for a woman like her who values physical exclusivity so much that it is impossible for her to reconcile her idea of a relationship with his job, in which casual kissing is a must.

He is going to give his best during the performance, Seiya-kun assures her. As for the kiss in their last scene: He once thought that Shiho wouldn't mind but now he thinks the kiss really bothers her, as she has been alluding to it ever since the first rehearsals. For this reason, they will have to fake the kiss during the performance just like they have faked it in the rehearsals until now.

Rei can remember perfectly the first rehearsal, after which Seiya-kun was frantically searching for Shiho-san, who had simply gone off for a tea session with Haruka-san without telling him in advance. The couple had been quarreling for some time afterwards, as Rei learned from the portiere, whose ex-girlfriend is stalking Seiya-kun. The kiss was completely faked and wouldn't have meant anything to him even if it had been real, he had tried to reassure Shiho-san over and over again while she had retorted that, with his ability to lose himself in a role, she didn't know what to believe.

It's only one peck and one long kiss during the whole performance, Rei protests. And stage kisses are absolutely essential, especially to a musical like _The Phantom of the Opera_. "I've agreed to fake it during every single rehearsal for her sake. But we can't fake it during the performance. It's not the type of musical or play in which you can fake it. This one kiss is the climax of the whole musical. The critics are going to rip us apart."

"Not if we fake it correctly," he insists, tilts his head slightly, and raises his hands to both sides of his face, testing out several positions before he closes the distance between them. With professional interest, he gingerly cups her face, places his thumb next to her lips, and leans in until she can feel his breath on her cheek. "We're already great at faking it although we need to make better use of your hair. It's hard to do it without making it look awkward. But if we can pull it off, it will look real enough." He slowly pulls away, satisfied with himself for coaxing her into using the old trick, which is going to get both of them justifiably flamed by the critics.

"All right, I'll try," she sighs and—in an attempt to banish from her mind the idea of grabbing him for a real kiss onstage where he can't resist—flashes a wicked smile at Shiho-san, who has just shot Seiya-kun and her a dark look. "But if I get an award for the most pathetic Christine, who can't even kiss her Phantom because he'd rather make out with his secretary instead, you'll have to make it up to me by coaching me for a month."

"Deal," he cheerfully agrees before he winces under Shiho-san's sinister gaze. "Although on second thought, I think I'll have to talk it over with Shiho first..."

"Ah, forget it. I don't think you can sacrifice so much of your free time for a casual friend like me now that you've got strings on you."

Despite herself, her voice sounds nostalgic, almost sorrowful, mourning the time he was still in love with Usagi and all of her friends were still hanging out with Three Lights. Raising her eyes, Rei notices that Seiya-kun is frowning at her silently, apparently lost for words. Having watched him for so long, Rei knows it would have been easier to ask him to climb the Campanile di San Marco without safety gear or to steal Gentile's gloves off his hands than to say something intelligent to salvage the situation. His usually sharp wit will always fail him whenever he is confronted with feelings he can't reciprocate, one of the reasons why he always has difficulty fighting off his female fans in contrast to Yaten-kun.

He has been extremely busy these days, he helplessly begins, which is why he is only dividing his time between work and Shiho, and—

"No need to apologize. Don't be such a twit and take everything so seriously." Rei inwardly curses her ridiculous compulsion to play the guilt card. "But if you can't kiss me even once onstage, I doubt you can ever get back into acting." He has outgrown his teen action roles, in which he only needed to peck his film partners on their cheeks, she reminds him. At twenty-five, they're going to cast him in the role of the ardent lover and force him to do all the raunchy love scenes even in action movies.

"Which is why I refused to come back with Taiki and Yaten," he says, and Rei kicks herself for not being able to guess this obvious reason. Just like Shizuka-san, she has hoped that he would eventually make his screen comeback even though he refused to revive Three Lights. As much as she hates herself for this, Rei is secretly convinced that Shiho-san is ruining Seiya-kun's career and that it would have been better for everyone if these two had never met. Even with her uncontrollable temper, Rei would undoubtedly have been the better girlfriend for Seiya-kun because she would never have tried to tie him down the way Shiho-san does. Unfortunately, Rei must lack something essential to attractiveness in his eyes, as he has never been even remotely attracted to her.

"Does Usagi know about you two?" she asks, realizing that Usagi might have known about Shiho-san and Seiya-kun all along.

"Of course I told Odango immediately after I met Shiho." He has already turned away from her as if he is about to leave, standing with one foot on the stairs and the other on the masegni.

And why didn't you tell us, Rei thinks, hurt by the inequality of his distribution of trust. But since time is running out and he has always been more "Odango's friend" than friends with the rest of the group, she decides to proceed to the next question.

"The remark about the 'opera' when you were imitating Haruka-san... It was a revenge against the perverted sleuth for groping your girlfriend, right?" It is best to take a detour to the topic of his switching act and to introduce it in a humorous tone, Rei decides, so that he won't get alarmed again and take flight before she can nail him down.

"Why perverted?" He blinks at her uncomprehendingly, looking suddenly ten years younger than his age with the puzzled expression which has just come over his face. He really didn't say it to taunt "Kudo", he forcefully asserts, (which throws Rei a bit because she can't tell why it should bother him whether he has hurt The Perverted Sleuth—abbreviated to "T.P.S." à la Haruka-san—or not). The whole act was actually a "goodbye present" for "the dear commissario," who (due to Seiya-kun's prank and Shiho-san and Seiya-kun's decision to hide their relationship from the police) had misread the situation and believed that Kudo, Shiho, and Seiya-kun were heading towards a precarious threesome. It was obvious that the commissario expected Seiya-kun to defend himself against the third party, who was trying to hit on his girlfriend in front of his eyes. And since Seiya-kun was in a generous mood and parodying Haruka-san, he wanted to do it in a way which was in character for her, as the time when Haruka-san was still so hot-headed and violent that she would have punched a rival for flirting with her girlfriend was long gone.

In any case, Seiya-kun wasn't aware of doing anything wrong and had already congratulated himself for coming up with such a fitting quote and giving the commissario such a dramatic showdown until he saw "Kudo's" crestfallen face. And now Seiya-kun doesn't know whether he should be glad or distressed that his girlfriend is so clueless that she hasn't even noticed it although he believes that she "still has feelings for Kudo."

"I don't think he is serious about her," Rei dismisses his worries with an impatient wave. Even though Rei doesn't think highly of men in general, she gives them enough credit to believe that no man would ever forget the woman he loves on a ship full of time bombs. "The perv only groped her to repay you for your prank. And then he put on his holier-than-thou face and accused you of not marrying her to put you down in front of the commissario." Nudging Seiya-kun's arm, she adds with a laugh, "Not everybody has the hots for your girlfriend. You're so possessive it's getting ridiculous. If you freak out because of a simple hug between old friends, you seriously need counselling."

Seiya-kun doesn't seem convinced by her arguments. Instead, he throws her a skeptical look telling her that it is not him but her, who has a problem.

"But I don't really get why Haruka-san's remark about the opera is supposed to be insulting," Rei thinks aloud. "If she claimed that the character of a piece is more important than the form by giving her composition such a title, doesn't it mean that she actually supported you two?"

No, when he parodied her, he only imitated her body language and imagined what she would have done if she had been in his shoes. As for the real Haruka-san, she went overboard and made fun of Shiho and him tonight, showing that her "opera" would never make it into the category of an opera. It is just a concert—not even a "concert" in the classical sense but what's usually called "concert" in the vernacular, a few loosely connected songs with accompaniment. It could be categorized as a song cycle or a series of studies but not as an opera no matter how operatic the songs are.

"She said that, just like her opera is only a singing exercise, we two were only two kids practising for future relationships with other people who would match us more. She also tried to persuade Shiho to leave me whenever she could."

"But why would she do that?" Although Rei knows Haruka-san liked to poke her nose into other people's private affairs for the best of reasons, this type of behaviour doesn't sound like her at all. "Don't tell me she really tried to steal her from you like the rumours say." Now that she thinks about it, it strikes Rei as peculiar that Haruka-san spent so much time with Shiho-san whenever she could, whisking her away from Michiru-san's academy after work whenever Seiya-kun was busy rehearsing.

"I wish I knew. She said I was the wrong one for Shiho and claimed I had stolen her from Kudo."

Shiho-san's soft spot for The Perverted Sleuth is an open secret, as Haruka-san, touched by Shiho-san's initial plan to sacrifice herself for T.P.S.'s sake and devastated by the speed at which Shiho-san succumbed to Seiya-kun's charms, often mentioned the topic to Mina-chan in passing. Rei has never understood why Shiho-san and Haruka-san admire the sleuth so much. Apart from the occasional tug of jealousy—a natural reaction to Seiya-kun and Shiho-san's incessant kissing whenever they think no one would notice—Rei can't say she has ever harboured any sort of grudge against Seiya-kun's "secretary". But if Shiho-san is really silly enough to dump Seiya-kun for her disgrace of a detective, there will be an army of other women eager to take her place and do their best to comfort her ex-boyfriend. And Rei is slightly taken aback by the unpleasant thought that it is much harder to keep a relationship than to start it, and that feelings are subject to change like the water in Venice during aqua alta.

x.

Shiho is freezing and he is tired, Seiya-kun interrupts Rei's train of thought with a yearning gaze in Shiho-san's direction, no longer trying to conceal his wish to go home and sink into the oblivion of sleep with his girlfriend in his arms. And since she doesn't look like a living human being either, resembling the Canterville Ghost more than Christine Daaé, he notes, she should mute her phone and go to bed as well.

"Just one last question, Seiya-kun..."

His gaze moves away from Shiho-san to travel leisurely along the Ponte Dei Tre Archi, the Bridge of Three Arches, in the distance before it rests on Rei's face with a genial but distracted look. Apparently, he is already far away, back in the boat where his girlfriend must be freezing even though she didn't have to wait for longer than a few minutes.

"Does she know about all the things you've done for her?"

"What do you mean?"

He stares at her in wide-eyed innocence, showing no sign of recognition at all, and Rei momentarily falters before she assures herself that it must be an act because he was the only person who could have messed with the time like that.

It took her a while to grasp why he has been playing so many pranks tonight, she informs him in a low voice, taking care that her face is turned away from Shiho-san so that the latter won't be able to read her words from her lips if she tries to. What about coming clean now before the secret comes between Shiho-san and him and destroys everything they have, Rei proceeds with the smug conviction of doing the right thing despite shooting herself in the foot. They wouldn't be the first couple to drift apart because of a misunderstanding.

He is visibly startled at the realization that she has guessed the reason for his "pranks", and she can see in his guarded gaze that he is wondering for a moment whether to continue this charade or not before he gives in.

"Maybe I will tell her about it some day." While his tone is not doubtful, it is non-committal enough for Rei to give up trying to advise him. Instead, she decides to vent her frustration with a rant.

"I don't mind all the other things you've done. But the thing with my clock was totally redundant. It would have been perfect if you had simply left it as it was, you blundering fool!"

"A simple 'thank you' would have sufficed," he laughs and lopes off towards the boat, raising a hand to wave her goodbye. As always, he doesn't look back. And Shiho-san is the only one who turns to wish Rei good night as they leave.

Even though Rei isn't deluded enough to believe it could have been more than a nice gesture towards an old friend and former ally, she is nonetheless moved by the undeniable truth that Seiya-kun has tried to protect her at the risk of endangering himself. Initially, the thought that only Seiya-kun could have put her clock back shocked Rei so much that she completely lost her composure in front of the commissario and the sleuth—and she even resented Seiya-kun a bit for using her as his alibi even though she couldn't remember him touching her clock while he was in her dressing room. It wasn't until Mamoru-san asked her on the way to the Gritti whether anyone suspected her that it dawned on Rei there was a detail she had overlooked: Due to her unfeigned astonishment, whatever suspicion the commissario and T.P.S. had of her prior to the interrogation must have dissipated. And despite the lack of a real alibi and the fact that the stairs from her dressing room conveniently lead directly to Haruka-san's, Rei is considered a harmless witness, whose only fault is her loyalty to Seiya-kun.

Since Seiya-kun, who is anything but dumb, would have run upstairs to put her clock forward when everyone went onstage if he had only visited her to put it back and fake an alibi for himself, Rei deduced in surprise that her clock must have kept good time until everyone went onstage for the third act and Seiya-kun sprinted up the steps to her dressing room to divert suspicion from her. He must have done it as an afterthought before returning to his dressing room and informing Shiho-san about Haruka-san's death. The unregenerate Samaritan has once again pulled a stunt which will harm himself. Unless he changes his attitude and learns to give the word "security" a second thought, he will soon find himself in trouble.

Names, even speaking names like Rei and her friends have, usually don't say much about the characters of their holders. But sometimes the names coincidentally match the personality of their owners perfectly. Seiya-kun resembles his name, which is evocative of stars, of lights in the darkness and of eternal hope, an ambiguous gift from Pandora's jar.

x.


	14. Part Two: Maybe she should give him...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Maybe she should give him...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

 

Maybe she should give him a few sleeping pills and shave his head tonight, Shiho ponders with a murderous sidelong glance at her imperturbable boyfriend, who is humming "Charade" to himself as if nothing had happened. Even though she is still furious about his pranks (pretending to kiss Hino-san in front of her door was the last straw—what would have happened if the paparazzi had been waiting there to get a nice shot of his spontaneous 'rehearsal'?), she has let him take her hand out of habit after they left the boat to Alberto Coiro and headed for the Rialto Bridge…

For no one except Seiya would like to "take a little walk" at this hour, and usually Shiho would have helped him put this absurd idea right out of his mind. But this could be their last stroll together without the reporters tailing them, she realizes. And now that they've passed the point of no return thanks to Tenoh-san's meddling, Shiho dreads to think of 'tomorrow': of reporters, paparazzi, and enraged fanatical fans all crowding into Seiya's dressing room to size up the girlfriend he has been hiding from the public for so long. Photos and video clips of hers are going to be published online. And some reporters might do their research better than expected, digging out details of her past she would rather keep hidden.

At least they are no longer in mortal danger, she tries to console herself. Now that the whole Pandora's Box affair is over, Seiya and she will be safe… Albeit at cost to another person…

A Pyrrhic victory, which feels more like a defeat.

"I'll do the laundry and clean the apartment this week if I don't have to sleep on the sofa," Seiya rubs her arm with his free hand, knowing that bribing her with cleaning is the only tactic which always works.

"You'll clean the apartment for the whole month," she declares. "Doing laundry is your task, anyway. You can't make amends by doing it."

"All right," he gives a theatrical sigh. "You're abusing your position, but I've been yearning to give our apartment a good scrub now that I'm already accustomed to doing the errands, the laundry, and the dishes!"

"Don't whine," she smirks. "If you want the career of a starving classical singer, you'll have to do half of our household chores plus the hard labour for your pranks. If you don't want to do the housework, just join your brothers for their comeback and we'll be rich enough to get a housekeeper."

"And make out with at least two actresses during one film? Forget it! We'd fight over the first rehearsal, and you'd divorce me and run off with Kudo within a month."

"You know, I'd run off with him immediately if he were still free and asked me to," she teases him. Kudo has become a pleasant fantasy she can acknowledge to him and herself without all the needless heartache which usually accompanies long drawn-out unrequited loves. Vaguely, she wonders whether "Odango" has become the same for Seiya as well.

"I know you'd do it, you bad girl!" He sounds genuinely hurt.

"We aren't married, though," she points out to him. "Unless you propose to me, I can't ever divorce you to run off with Kudo."

As expected, he immediately catches on to her suggestion.

"I'm already proposing to you." He dramatically sinks to his knees at once, grasping at her coat with both hands. "Please marry me immediately after the show tomorrow night. We can steal Christine's wedding dress from the theatre and elope to Las Vegas together." As an afterthought, he cautiously adds, "You will have to take care of all the paperwork, though. But I promise I will sign anything you give me and endure your nasty temper for all eternity."

"Even if I wanted to marry, I wouldn't marry a penniless singer like you," she haughtily breathes, giving his arm a slight kick with the tip of her shoe. "You've been rejected and are allowed to drown yourself in the Canal now if you absolutely want to."

He instantly falls over to the side, writhing in pain on the marble bridge, which is still wet with rain. Strolling towards the central portico bathed in the yellow light of the street lamps, she thinks in admiration that his acting has become so convincing and flawless that, if she had heard the sound of a pistol, she would have fallen for it and believed that he had just been shot.

"Ah, look at all the love padlocks," she exclaims when her gaze falls on another group of identical padlocks strung around the handrail. Letting her eyes roam about the bridge, she estimates that there must be at least a hundred of these on her way to the portico. "One could almost think this is not the Rialto but the Ponte del Accademia… Don't they mind ruining the Rialto for their love declarations? But padlocks are still easier to remove than love graffiti, I'd guess…" At second glance, she discovers the engraved names on the locks and groans. "I can't believe it, there are even padlocks with your name engraved on them. You have some truly lovesick fans!"

Since he does not respond, she turns and—seeing him lying on the ground—snaps, "Oh come on, get up already! As lovely as it sounds in theory, I don't want to spend the whole night on this bridge with you." If the gesture weren't so juvenile, she would have stamped her foot. The years of living with him are starting to take effect on her.

Seconds pass. When he doesn't reply, she decides to try a last nice approach before resorting to violence. "Isn't it awfully cold on the wet marble? You'll get sick if you stay there for too long!" Irked by his persistent silence, she continues in her darkest voice, "I've just about had enough of your infantile pranks. I swear you'll sleep on the sofa for the whole month if you don't get up now. This instant!"

In the ensuing silence, she is acutely aware of how empty the city has become. While they are the only people on the bridge, she can feel the presence of a third person lurking somewhere, watching them from the distance. For a moment, the old wave of nausea sweeps over her again. And her surroundings suddenly seem to her threateningly dark despite the glowing portico and the street lamps, whose red and yellow lights are mirrored in the moving water like miniature suns.

"Seiya, Seiya!" She runs back to him, checks his pulse and, sighing in relief when she finally finds it, proceeds to inspect his body rapidly for signs of an injury. "Can you hear me? Just say something!" After opening the first buttons of his shirt, she cradles his head to inspect his face. The stalker must be a product of her imagination, otherwise they would already have shown themselves by now, she surmises, trying to pull herself together to think straight. She still has her stun-gun wristwatch in her handbag in case someone attacks them. Could Seiya have swallowed the poison or part of it by accident, she wonders while rummaging through her handbag in search of the watch. It is impossible although he has this uncanny gentle look on his smiling face. And she wouldn't be able to do anything because it is irreversible unless he is resistant…

"I could stay here forever," he chuckles, catching her hand before she can hit him. Resting his head on her lap, he taps a cheerful rhythm on her bracelet. "Why don't we just stay like this for a while?"

"Why can't you stop when it's too much?" she snaps, jerking at his ponytail. "What's wrong with you tonight? Why can't you be serious for just one minute or two?"

He gives her an innocent smile, charming her for a moment with arresting eyes, which are almost black in the night. His greatest talent, she suddenly realizes, is his ability to ignite spontaneous feelings of love in other people without doing anything. One smile here, another pat on the shoulder there, and even his sworn enemies usually falter, falling prey to his infectious sense of contentment.

"Imagine what they would have thought if I had told them that you're actually Haruka-san's secretary," he thinks aloud instead of answering her question. "The dear commissario would have jumped to the conclusion that you had had an affair with her."

"It's odd that some people are so occupied with other people's love lives when it should be none of their business." She rolls her eyes. "Your fans are the same… I've never cared about whom Higo was in love with. But your fans pursue you without knowing who you are, sometimes even leaving their own boyfriends to worship an ideal."

"People often fall in love with a fantasy," he recites. "Especially when they're unhappy with their lives. It's a safe way to distract yourself from problems that are too overwhelming to deal with. You're fleeing from a real threat to hide behind an artificial one."

He is using Tenoh-san's voice now, her husky androgynous voice with the same seductive quality which once confused many a girl at Infinity…

At the same time, while he is cool and detached, reciting it like a theory he doesn't believe in, he is eyeing her with an expression of deep, never-ending, universal sadness, acting out Tenoh-san's existential crisis, which even Kaioh-san could never defuse for her.

"Did Tenoh-san say that about us in the beginning?" she frowns.

"That and many other things," he dismissively says in his own voice, turns away, and surprises her by pulling his napkin, which is still damp from the water Kudo has spilled on her, out of his pocket. "Ta-dah!"

"What's this?" she asks, stupefied, while he swiftly ties her love bracelet to a padlock.

"One of the napkins Setsuna-san gave us last Christmas, you remember? Apparently, the commissario thought that I had used it to choke Haruka-san—an impossible feat, if you ask me… I'm sure he wanted to steal it when no one was looking. Hence I took it to add a bit of suspense to the case instead of leaving it in the café."

"I know it's one of Meioh-san's napkins. I put it in your pocket, after all! I want to know what you're doing with it and most of all why!"

"I'm tying your bracelet to a padlock with only my name on it," he states, matter-of-factly. "Maybe I can even ask Rei-chan to recite a spell for me and make you marry me in a daze. Did you know she once trained to be a priestess? People around her believed she had unearthly spiritual powers, which is why she didn't have any friends at school. That was before the Organization burned down her grandfather's shrine. If it hadn't been for Rei-chan's light sleep, they all would have died…"

Shiho did not know it. And usually, Hino-san's childhood would have intrigued her but tonight, she doesn't care about anything reminding her of the Organization. She has decided to leave the past behind her like a nightmare which, now that she has awoken, no longer has any noticeable effect on her present and future life. If he asked her in all seriousness now, she thinks, she would be weak enough to marry him even without "Rei-chan's" spell, confining herself to a life of marital ups and downs.

"Really? Aino-san once told me that Hino-san sleeps like a rock. But this is so childish I can't believe you're really doing it," she demonstratively yawns, tugging at the napkin. "It's such a pain to untie it with one hand." To her annoyance, he only adds another knot, pulling it as tight as he can. "But now that you've had your fun tying me up, what about untying me now before I fall asleep here?"

"Never," he chuckles, leaping to his feet. "This is for making eyes at Kudo all night. It was so distracting that I could barely focus."

"You know anyone could assault me and kill me before I can untie all these knots?" she raises her voice, feeling the anger surging back to her face as she takes in her ridiculous situation.

"You? No way!" He affectionately pats her hair. "I already pity the poor fool who tries to assault you out of all people." Then he gives her a last radiant smile and adds exuberantly "Let's see who arrives home first!" before he dashes away at Tenoh-san's speed, disappearing between two houses on the other side of the street.

For inexplicable reasons, Shiho had wanted him to befriend Kudo (and had also expected that his natural charm would automatically take care of the rest) before she witnessed in horror how he turned their very first meeting into a mess. But now that she is crouching alone on the empty bridge, stoically untying the long chain of knots his four-year-old alter ego has created with the damp napkin, she wonders how she could have believed in the utopia that Seiya and Kudo would ever get along. The outcome that Kudo would rather question her sanity than acknowledge her good taste was inevitable right from the start. To make matters worse, she sometimes wonders to herself how she could have been living with Seiya for almost four years. As much as she loves him, she also hates him during moments like this when all his cells seem to carry out his sole command to irritate her as much as possible.

Nevertheless—and even by his own standards—Seiya has been unbearable tonight, she thinks. It almost seems as if he, too, is struggling to keep up a facade to avoid the one topic they should have talked about but have sidestepped for the whole evening.

"I know my packet of APAH can't have disappeared on its own. Did you…?" But even in her thoughts, she doesn't dare to finish the sentence, fearing that all the years of their relationship would be weighed against the implications of that one question.

x.


	15. Part Two: Sorry for the rough...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Sorry for the rough...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

"Sorry for the rough welcome, but I'm not the one who has come to our date armed to the teeth," Seiya Kou remarks, raising the emptied Beretta and the two sheath knives in his hands. "I hope you haven't changed sides yet."

What a disaster, Alan thinks, a perfectly amiable meeting between old acquaintances gone wrong just because his halfwit of a companion got the brilliant idea that aiming his Beretta at the cheeky singer would help foster a serious mood. As old habits die hard, Alan has automatically drawn the knives afterwards, and he was thankful that Seiya was shrewd enough not to misjudge the situation.

With a sigh, Alan pushes into the shadow the legs of the "back-up hitman" his client has sent, carefully leans the young man against a column of the Ca' d'Oro, and pulls his hat over his eyes. To the casual observer, he will look like a drunk bum taking a nap, Alan thinks, satisfied with the arrangement, and joins Seiya at the fountain.

"I haven't. But my young colleague must have thought you were going to cause us unnecessary trouble."

He knows he doesn't need to explain himself any further, as it is indisputable where his real sympathies lie. Although years have passed without either of them trying to keep in touch, Alan hasn't forgotten the warm welcome he always received at "Kinmoku", where the old crew used to gather together on special occasions. Among the four children of the family, Alan has always found Seiya most agreeable. The kid resembles his mother, who was free of class consciousness and prejudice, treating the highest-ranking people with the same casual ease with which she treated ordinary messengers like Alan.

"The only unnecessary things are these weapons," Seiya returns Alan's knives. "I hope these two weren't meant for me."

"I wasn't going to use either of them on you!" Alan quickly returns the knives to their sheaths before Seiya can change his mind. "They're a memento of the old times. I've been carrying them since their previous owner committed suicide." Recalling with bitterness that they all lost friends or relatives four years ago while the FBI got away without a scratch, Alan lights himself a Dunhill and offers Seiya one, which the young man declines.

"I'm keeping this in case your 'colleague' over there wakes up too early," Seiya declares, pocketing the Beretta. "Why couldn't you have come alone?"

"Ah, I didn't have a choice. I told them he is too young and inexperienced, and pea-brained into the bargain. But they argued that he was cheap. As you can tell, it was an economic decision."

Seiya gives him a sympathetic smile.

"Your employer should have made do without their rookie hitman if they had really wanted to negotiate with me so badly that they went out of their way to hire _you_. _That_ wasn't an economic decision."

"I'm not well-paid at all. These politicians are cheaper than you can imagine. They believe that only the best will do but they refuse to pay for it. I told them talking to you in private is harder than getting an appointment with Tomoe on his lucid days, but they pay me little more than they pay their useless secretary."

"I suppose it was your employer who sent the other two guys after me? One tried to break into our apartment while the other one stalked me on my way to the grocery store."

Did he really have to break their necks just because they were a bit too zealous in doing their job, Alan reproaches him. "It took my client a fortune to get rid of the bodies, and I can understand their frustration. You're going to endanger your career and make yourself enemies if you don't learn to keep your temper in check."

"It wasn't me," Seiya gives him an indignant look. "You should choose your employers more wisely. This one doesn't only underpay you but also feeds you lies."

While Seiya's eyes are perfectly honest, Alan knows him long enough to acknowledge that the young man might as well be lying. At least he usually doesn't lie to gain the moral upper hand, Alan thinks, deciding to trust Seiya's words for the time being.

"Do you suggest that my employer—or my client, as I prefer to call them—has done away with the two men after the failures just to blame the kills on you?"

No, he doesn't, Seiya replies, stepping aside to evade the cigarette smoke, which the wind is now blowing in his direction. "But your 'client' is wrong to blame their deaths on me without a shred of evidence. It's a typical example of a poorly conducted investigation."

"You've quitted smoking," Alan observes. "Your mother would have been proud of you. She never liked the filthy habit." He inhales the smoke with guilty pleasure.

"I only smoked for the live-action series. These days Shiho would strangle me before I can light a cigarette, so I don't even try it anymore," Seiya asserts, changing from Alan's right side to his left side to evade the smoke. "Her nose is so exquisite she is going to smell the fumes in my hair before I notice it myself."

"She's got you wrapped around her little finger," Alan warns him. "Remember what your father told you and never get too attached to a woman before she has proven over and over again that she is really worth it."

"Taiki and Yaten have already taken his advice to heart so that I can depart from the rule with a good conscience."

"I've been tailing you since forever, but your 'secretary' was always around," Alan complains. "It was impossible to get your attention even for one second. Thank God I remembered the rhythm your mother told me about. The lousy weather was against me. But at least you hadn't been too busy flirting with your little singer friend to notice my signal."

"You've been tailing me since Thursday morning, you got the rhythm wrong, and the Ponte Dei Tre Archi was a bad choice of location. I was glad Shiho and especially Rei didn't discover you because they were both in a rotten mood."

"I hope you would have put in a good word for me in that case. Isn't our little priestess-goes-archer-goes-singer still smitten with you after all these years?"

"I don't think it's really about me. She probably sees me as a challenge. It's hard for her to adapt now that everything is over and she doesn't have anything to fight against anymore."

Leaning against the fountain, Seiya languorously stretches out his arms and legs. Encouraged by the gesture, Alan decides that now is the right moment to address the delicate issue.

"I gather you're the same type. That's why you've been so restless lately."

Seiya throws him a wary look.

"Please define 'restless'."

"All the extravagant demands that are growing completely out of proportion so that my client begins to have difficulty meeting them. And it doesn't look like they're the only one who has grown sick of your games. Your moves are getting bolder as well, imprudent and unpredictable…"

When the singer doesn't respond but only regards Alan with an unreadable gaze, Alan elaborates, "You've invited the two snoops who were involved in the Pandora's Box affair to Venice. Why? Your most recent escapade at La Fenice is also puzzling. What are your objectives? Are you going to take revenge on the FBI? Why does it have to be now when my client is still trying to recover from the financial crisis?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Seiya looks genuinely amused.

Sitting on the rim of the fountain and bouncing his leg, the young man looks like the embodiment of innocence. But Alan can still remember the time when Seiya was five—an adorable little angel that never understood why he was reprimanded by his elders for an offence he hadn't committed at all…

Except that the little rascal was usually guilty of all the pranks, as his parents only found out when he had already escaped his punishment and their anger had evaporated with time.

Simultaneously impressed by the singer's acting skills and exasperated by his persistent denial, Alan stubs out his cigarette on the rim of the fountain.

"A 'Mr Jean Black' arrived in Venice on Wednesday night. Just like you, Seiya, before you went to La Fenice to decorate your dressing room. But the catch is: No one knows where Mr Jean Black has gone while your name isn't on the flight manifest! I know it for sure because I've checked it myself."

"I don't know why I should inform you of my whereabouts," Seiya raises his brow. "But I can assure you that I have absolutely no idea what you're trying to tell me."

"You've been seen by a fan while having a drink at The Falcon in Clapham on Sunday, two days before you went to the country to shoot Saguru Hakuba's peregrine falcon. Coloured contact lenses and a wig aren't enough to fool a devoted fan who has collected all the DVDs and Blu-rays of your films. She swore to her complete fan collection that it was you. The lovestruck girl would have taken a photo if you hadn't been gone long before she woke up from her stupor and got up her courage to ask you for an autograph."

"If I had wanted to disguise myself, she wouldn't have recognized me," Seiya asserts. "It's either a doppelgänger, or your witness needs to have her eyesight checked."

The statement makes too much sense to be ignored, and Alan proceeds to puff at his cigarette with an indecisive frown.

"So you claim that you haven't shot the falcon?"

"Why should I run around shooting other people's pet falcons while I'm busy preparing for a musical? If I had wanted to practice shooting on a living target, I'd have chosen him—" Seiya indicates the unconscious hitman "—or one of the other wannabe agents your client sent to stalk us. They make Shiho nervous and waste our time and energy."

"You only have yourself to blame," Alan reminds him. "If you hadn't put the screws on them, they wouldn't have sent anyone. They liked you and were ridiculously happy to pay for all your expenses as long as you didn't put the noose around their necks."

"I didn't put the screws on anyone. I already told you that Jean Black is not me."

"I know the real Jean Black is dead. But you've often used the same alias when you were incognito, just like 'Akira Tenoh'. Your parents and I were surprised that Haruka Tenoh actually played along and invented a mysterious brother for your sake. But since you two conveniently 'killed him off' at Infinity and we thought you were only having harmless fun, no one took it seriously…"

"There's no point in continuing this any further." Seiya takes out the Beretta, removes the fingerprints with his sleeves, and places the weapon on the rim of the fountain. "Shiho is going to do something unimaginable to me if I'm not home before she is."

Alan can tell his client that they are to leave them alone from now on, Seiya continues with an air of finality. If anyone extorts money in his name, they should investigate somewhere else because until now they've been barking up the wrong tree.

"But what are you going to do with Pandora's Box now?" Alan throws the cigarette away, lights himself a new one, and slips the Beretta into his pocket along with the cigarette packet. Who is he kidding? He longs for the old days like a seaman longs for the sea. Nothing in his life can ever replace the suspense, the comradeship, the sense of a common cause… "If you're going to use it 'for a worthy cause'… You know what I mean," he gives Seiya a conspiratorial grin, "you can naturally count on me."

x.

* * *

 

**It is starting...**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

It is starting to rain, raining cats and dogs and chinchillas, as Alan, who is more sensitive than Andersen's princess on the pea, complains. Pandora's Box and the "worthy cause" are instantly forgotten, the breathtaking timeless beauty of Ca' d'Oro with its floral gothic style, its ancient marble, its elegant columns and arches, and its pink and white, once gilt-covered facade (the gilt has long faded, but Ca' d'Oro is a beauty that looks even better in simple attire), is completely ignored as the freezing November rain pours down and the wind picks up... And when Alan buttons up his coat while cursing the vile Venetian weather in three languages, Seiya thinks in resignation and slight amusement that lofty ideals are often rendered useless immediately when more urgent needs command one's attention.

Taking cover under the recessed colonnaded loggia next to the column where the hopeless optimist of rookie agent is now resting, Seiya heartlessly breaks the bad news to Alan that he is not going to do anything with Pandora's Box for the simple reason that it is gone. At the same time, his thoughts are wandering to Shiho, who must be catching her death in her dress and her thin trench coat at this moment if she hasn't already arrived home yet. In theory, she only needs ten minutes from the Rialto Bridge to walk home in her fancy shoes. But if she has been dawdling, she might have got caught in the rain.

"Gone?" Alan shoots him an irritated look.

"Yes, gone," Seiya nonchalantly repeats, knowing exactly what his companion is thinking, as he has been familiar with this look since his early childhood. In short, the look telegraphed: WE BOTH KNOW MY CLIENT WOULD HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED IF THE PROGRAMME HAD BEEN DEACTIVATED STOP IT IS OBVIOUS THAT YOU ARE LYING TO ME FOR REASONS I CANNOT UNDERSTAND STOP...

"Apparently, your client and all the other blackmailed people had been hoodwinked by a con man who didn't have anything against them in his hands," Seiya gleefully adds, deciding to treat the matter with as much gravity as he would have treated a scene in a postmodern adaptation of _Much Ado About Nothing_. "Instead of following me around, they should have talked to me."

The world would be a better place if people talked to each other before they acted, Seiya's mother (whom Alan had most probably been in love with) once claimed. By contrast, Taiki argued that people usually talked too much but seldom if ever listened while Yaten interjected that neither talking nor listening would change anything about the innately corrupt human nature. And while the three of them discussed weighty philosophical matters over a cup of tea, Seiya would run off to sing in forbidden jazz nightclubs (he always managed to fool the security operatives with his disguises), play pranks on (or pick a fight with) his parents' bodyguards, or plunder the kitchen to party and dance with his adored, beloved, cherished Kakyuu…

Any person with eyes could see that Seiya didn't resemble his mother much. Nevertheless, Alan (who hasn't even reached early middle age yet) would always drown under a wave of nostalgia whenever Seiya says something which only remotely reminds him of Seiya's mother.

"I'm going to deliver your message..." Alan expertly lights himself another cigarette. One doesn't need to be Kudo Shinichi to tail him, Seiya thinks, observing the chain-smoker with sympathy. Wherever he goes, Alan Baudin leaves a trail of cigarette stubs behind just like Hansel and Gretel's trail of pebbles or breadcrumbs in Odango's favourite fairy tale. "...But I don't think they're going to buy it. Or at least I hope they won't. You do understand that Pandora's Box is the only reason why Taiki, Yaten, and you are still alive after… after everything broke down?"

No, it's the only reason why he has been followed, Seiya returns. "Without it, no one would feel so threatened by me that they would hire people like you to stalk us all day."

The disappointment in his voice is palpable. While he doesn't think the remark was inappropriate, Seiya wonders whether he has been too harsh towards the old friend of his family. On the other hand, Alan apparently needs a figurative slap on the wrist to finalize the change of career he told Seiya about after the Organization was dismantled.

"Ah, I only accepted this job because I wanted them to _talk_ to you instead of stooping to more permanent and radical methods. And I still have the two kids my cousin left behind to provide for. The girl loves expensive gadgets and the boy collects porcelain dolls." Alan is now talking with arms and legs, painting intricate smoke patterns into the cold air with his glowing cigarette stub, which looks to Seiya like a burning bee or a dancing glow-worm. "I don't mind the gender reversal as long as they're happy, but their spending sprees are a curse which has taken a toll on me."

"I must go now." Seiya stops his rant before this meeting can turn into a cozy chat. "Sorry for not inviting you to lunch. But let's meet up another time when I'm less busy! I'm already late and Shiho is going to ask questions."

"Many good men have ruined themselves for their lovers," Alan begins to preach. When people approach middle age, some suddenly start to believe that they have gained enough life experiences to handle other people's private affairs for them. "It would be too sad if you end up doing the same. Every time I check on you, I see a woman stringing you along. Your flirt with Michiru Kaioh drew Haruka Tenoh's attention to your parents. Usagi Tsukino, the little blonde in Tenoh's group, was already engaged, but you dated her for months—even got yourself injured for her sake. You probably didn't notice that the public scandal Tenoh and you caused wasn't only humiliating for you but for your family as well. Then the tragedy with Kakyuu… Grieving is only natural—by God we all grieved back then—but you simply threw your career as an idol away after Kakyuu's accident and travelled to who knows where without giving your parents a call. Then, just when everything came tumbling down and we all hoped that you would reassemble the group since you returned to Japan, you suddenly got yourself a nondescript girlfriend and ran away with her to Venice out of all places! There are as many beautiful (even fascinating!) women in the world as there are mayflies in spring. But there is only one Pandora's Box! Please remember that when people realize that you're crazy about her and get the idea to use her as a lever..."

Under different circumstances, Seiya would have retorted that it is rather nasty of Alan to compare women to mayflies. However, he has a more pressing problem to deal with right now. Noticing that Little Briar Rose has begun to stir, Seiya uncaringly knocks him out.

"Just lengthened his nap a bit so that he can't overhear you and put your idea into practice," Seiya explains, regretting for the first time that he hasn't knocked out Alan as well when he disarmed him. "If your client ever considers using Shiho as a lever, you can warn them that I'm going to make their life so unpleasant that they'll wish I would just kill them instead."

"My client has never mentioned anything of the sort," Alan hastens to pacify him. "If they had, I'd never have agreed to work for them." In a more casual but still subdued tone, he asks with a crooked smile, "Does your beloved paramour know about your parents?"

"She does," Seiya smiles. "But it doesn't have anything to do with us."

At least it doesn't as far as he is concerned. As far as Shiho is concerned, things aren't quite as rosy as they could be. Even though her own parents couldn't exactly be described as quirky scientists developing harmless drugs and she herself hasn't always been Haruka-san's capable secretary, Shiho treats his family background with the same mixture of shame and fear with which other people treat sexually transmitted, potentially deadly diseases. Even now, whenever someone mentions his parents, she will still freeze, withdraw, and hide behind a wall of withering sarcasm until she manages to banish them out of her thoughts again.

Perhaps his family background really shouldn't affect their relationship in any way, Alan graciously agrees. After all, who can still tell which side he really belongs to? Black Organization, FBI, CIA, MI6, the Japanese police or the French motards... Double agents, spies, traitors, and loyal followers alike are all struggling to find a suitable spot in this rapidly changing world, whose bureaucracy, technology, and materialism leave hopeless idealists like him behind like relicts of an ancient age.

"You really don't have Pandora's Box anymore?" Alan asks again. He belongs to the tiresome people who always need to hear the bad news twice.

"Ah, I tell the truth most of the time but somehow everyone thinks that I'm lying. I'm sick of it because it's been like that for the whole night."

Not a real "No" and not a real "Yes", Alan, who hasn't lost his touch, observes. "How come you know it's been deactivated?"

"Why should I hide it from you?" Seiya smiles, attentively listening to the sound of the rain, which has become quite pleasant, almost soothing.

_I've deactivated it. It was still running when I arrived, blinking at me. Gin was dead, just like the detective. I could have started the programme anew and steer the ship back to the isle or towards Haruka's seaside house. For obvious reasons, either options wouldn't do. Staying in the middle of the sea wasn't an option either since I expected the FBI to arrive at any minute. Moreover, a storm was rising so I had to find shelter as soon as possible. In the end, I thought that leaving it there to be blown to smithereens isn't the worst funeral for the Organization's impossible dreams._

Seiya can see the whole scene he has conjured up unfold before his eyes as if he were watching a movie in which he has once starred while the real memory—different from this version in many aspects—has retreated from his consciousness so completely that it might as well never have happened. This uncanny ability to forget himself in whatever role he plays has been a part of him ever since he can remember. If he allows himself to lose control completely, he is able to shut out the world for days, living in a world of his own just like Michiru-sama whenever she is absorbed in painting.

"But the notifications!"

"It seems your client hasn't been completely honest to you. The notifications must have been sent to everyone on the list the moment I deactivated it. And for a while, they all seemed reasonably content with the situation. Your blackmailing con man must have found a way to put pressure on them using some flimsy evidence they wouldn't have taken seriously if they hadn't been so paranoid. In any case, it doesn't have anything to do with me. I'm going to wash my hands of it now."

"How could you throw it all away?" Alan tosses his cigarette butt away as if to demonstrate his sentence, rummages for his cigarette packet, and takes out the last Dunhill, a brand Seiya has never smoked and might have tried out if it hadn't been for Shiho, who once told him that she associates smoking with secret agents and snipers and who wouldn't ever kiss a smoker anymore after her ill-fated entanglement with Gin.

Because he loves his life, Seiya replies, giving the former French _agent motard_ and double agent an honest answer to a question triggered by a lie. Deciding that a dash of frivolity would lighten up the atmosphere, he concludes to Alan's visible dismay, "I'm sorry, but humanity will have to take care of itself since I won't be contributing."

"But it's a question of personal security! Did you at least create a backup?" Obviously, Alan, who has always been wrapped up in "the worthy cause," thinks that this was the reason Seiya ventured out to Pandora's Box despite the impending storm.

"No, I didn't."

A curt answer with no further explanation. Nevertheless, Seiya has already told Alan, who is repeatedly pushing his boundaries, more than once that he would like to end the talk.

"It's too bad then," Alan sighs. "Well, I suppose I have your word that you're going to keep out of my client's affairs from now on if they keep out of yours? If that's the case, my job here is done and I can get my little protégé her latest iPhone now."

"As long as their actions don't interfere with my interests, it's live and let live," Seiya declares, relieved that the tedious talk is finally over so that he can go home to face his inevitable punishment. Now that he has grown accustomed to Shiho's continual mistreatment and disproportionate reactions—a remnant of the upbringing she got from the Organization—he is almost curious about what she has in store for him.

"Just a personal question: Did Haruka Tenoh's actions interfere with your interests?" Alan curiously asks as he lights his last cigarette without taking his eyes from Seiya's.

"They always did." Seiya doesn't see any reason to lie about this. "But that's over now."

x.

So that's what it's all about—a personal skirmish between old rivals, Alan thinks, beginning to put two and two together. Haruka Tenoh, as obnoxious as he or she was (it irks Alan that even something like the sex one has been born with isn't unchangeable anymore), has always been tolerated by all the parties because it would have been a giant pain in the arse, so to speak, to take her out. Too many connections to sever, too many skills to evade, too many loose threads afterwards to clean up, too little to gain. Apart from that, the ex-racer was mightily impressive, and Alan once thought that she and Seiya were good friends, albeit in a twisted way.

"As for the detectives," Seiya suddenly adds, "I hope your client is going to keep their hands off them since Saguru Hakuba is a friend of an acquaintance and Shinichi Kudo is my guest."

"You said you didn't invite either of them to Venice," Alan reminds him. The singer's mind is more complicated and convoluted than the patterns of the coloured marble loggia and the embellishments on the fountain in the courtyard.

He didn't invite anyone, Seiya insists. But it doesn't change the fact that Shinichi Kudo, who has come to Venice by accident, is one of Shiho's best friends. Since she loves him so much, she would be inconsolable if anything happened to him.

"Kaito Kuroba is an old acquaintance of mine. And since Saguru Hakuba is Kuroba's friend, you get the drift. Apart from that, both Hakuba and Kudo are so well-known that your client had better leave them alone."

But Haruka Tenoh was famous as well—Alan inwardly protests—which didn't save her from being eliminated during two acts of her own opera. And isn't one's girlfriend's most loved guy friend always the very first man one should get rid of before he can cause trouble for one's relationship? Alan can't understand the young men these days. Men of his age are less complex when it comes to love and rivalry.

"Look, I can tell my client what you've said. But I doubt that they're going to listen if the two sleuths begin to snoop around and find out more than they're allowed to know. I admit my client is also a bit slow on the uptake. You're going to need more than a few good arguments to convince them."

"All right. Then please tell your client—whoever they are—that I still have enough information to ruin anyone who dares to harm a hair on either Hakuba's or Kudo's head." Seiya changes his strategy without batting an eyelid. "Their girlfriends, friends, relatives, housekeepers, neighbours, pets, and even their neighbours' pets are to be left alone as well," he adds cheerily. "In case they get the idea to do me in first, I've already made preparations for my untimely demise so that I'll be taking all the people on the list down with me. On the other hand, if they agree to stay out of my life, I'm going to take care of their falcon-shooter for them if he reappears. But it's silly of us to fight over imaginary scenarios. Let's stop here since I must go home now!"

He really hasn't shot the falcon, Alan finally comprehends. It would have been out of character for Seiya, anyway. Alan has almost forgotten that all the three brothers had a soft spot for pets. Nevertheless, Seiya has finally admitted that Pandora's Box is still in his possession. It only surprises Alan why he has just given up his secret so easily to protect the two detectives even though he was so eager to lie about it a few minutes ago.

As the initial premise ("Seiya has shot the falcon") has changed, the whole case suddenly becomes crystal clear to Alan. And in this light, Haruka Tenoh's death no longer seems arbitrary but inevitable. A desperate move of someone who had been cornered and couldn't see another way out.

"You're right," Alan sighs. "I've done my job for now." Giving the young man the sharpest gaze he can manage, Alan hazards a guess: "No matter how thoroughly they search, they're never going to find the real falcon-shooter, aren't they? I'm only asking you to spare myself the unnecessary footwork. I won't ever tell anyone about it, I swear on my cousin's knives and my favourite cigarette lighter."

"Never," Seiya calmly responds before adding in a fit of morbid humour, "Their falcon-shooter is probably undergoing an autopsy right now."

Just as Alan has thought. The two detectives were meant to be her life insurance. A smart move, which tragically backfired because her opponent likes to challenge authorities in general and law enforcement officers in particular.

"I wonder what the medical examiner is going to find," Alan thinks aloud. However, Seiya does not take the bait as he has hoped.

"I don't know," the young man—Seiya will always be a kid for Alan, who can still see his five-year-old face behind his twenty-five-year-old one—shrugs and lets his serene gaze roam about the courtyard, where the white arches and staircase stand out against the delicate pink facade of the wall. "Maybe an overdose of sleeping pills? I don't know what people usually take when they want to end a life they've become thoroughly sick of. Why are you asking me?"

Amiable as he is, Seiya has always been impossible to crack whenever he sets himself to rebel. Now that he has clammed up completely, Alan decides that it is time to give up before he overstays his welcome in Venice.

It doesn't matter since he was only curious… But before he leaves, he will repeat that whenever Seiya happens to need a former _agent motard_ on his side, Alan will lend him a hand (and even a bike) for old times' sake…

"…Don't hesitate to give me a call in Paris. After all, I really owe it to your parents—"

He would have acknowledged that he was deeply sorry for not being available four years ago when they needed his assistance—a regret which has been haunting him ever since he read about the end of the Organization and the death of the Boss and the seven crows in the news while he was holidaying in Spain. But the expression on Seiya's face stops him before he can continue.

_It's over,_ Seiya firmly says. _I'll visit you the next time I come to Paris. But it doesn't have anything to do with my parents. Just let go of it! We both don't owe them anything anymore._

x.


	16. Part Two: Hakuba's call...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Hakuba's call…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Hakuba's call, as much as it unsettled Shinichi at first, has the converse effect on him now that he has had time to think about it. Evidently, he has given Ai the "Prisoner of Love" and she wore it all the time even though there was nothing romantic about their friendship. So what? In the same way, a real possibility exists that the love bracelet she is wearing now doesn't have any romantic connotation either.

Who can tell how her unfathomable mind works? Shinichi could never do it as much as he tried. Even now, he can remember the faint mocking smile with a hint of amusement and exasperation on her face when they talked about her necklace. In all likelihood, she had already discovered the Cupid by then and was also well aware that he didn't know what he had given her, as evidenced by her remark that he must have grabbed the necklace without really looking at it and that she liked her present but didn't like the fact that it was from him…

Since Ai wore the necklace he gave her despite knowing its implication simply because she liked it (then why the deuce, Sherlock Holmes would ask, doesn't she wear the pendant anymore?), she might be wearing her love bracelet just because she likes it as well. In any case, he is going to talk with her… with them… in person in a few hours. Until then, it's only a waste of time to speculate about her choice of jewellery when there are more urgent things he needs to take care of now.

Having thus assuaged the shock of the latest news for himself, Shinichi stoically continues to analyze the situation while leafing through Carrara's magazines. Is the present case connected to Pandora's Box and the downfall of the Organization as Hakuba suspects? It would be too curious a coincidence if someone called Jean Black had accidentally shot Hakuba's falcon before he flew to Venice a few days before Tenoh Haruka, M Jean Black's daughter, mysteriously died between two acts of her opera. It is even more improbable that, at the time Jean Black shot Watson, a man with the same name as Tenoh's deceased brother Akira was in London and was mistaken as Jean Black by Hakuba, whose obsessive accuracy diminishes Sherlock Holmes'. Obviously, someone has intentionally shot Watson to lure Hakuba to Venice. But whether this really has anything to do with Pandora's Box as it looks or is an entirely unrelated case, Shinichi cannot tell.

Shinichi has already sent a few messages to his parents and Jodie-san to inquire about Tenoh Haruka but has yet to receive a reply. Chances are that Tenoh was once involved with the FBI due to her family background and that she already worked as a spy when she applied for Tomoe Souichi's academy. It would explain why she called herself "Tenoh Haruka" instead of using her father's surname when she went to Japan to—so it seems—investigate the seven crows.

Was "Tenoh" her mother's surname? Or did Tenoh Haruka only use the imposing (stage?) name to hide her family background? M Jean Black never mentioned his daughter, and Shinichi thought he didn't have any children, as his wife had been murdered soon after their marriage. If Tenoh's mother had really been executed by her fellow "crows" because she married a secret agent, how come she had time to deliver her baby? Even if she had been pregnant before her marriage, the Organization must certainly have noticed. How did she manage to hide her unborn daughter from them for so long? Or did the seven crows have a policy not to execute a pregnant woman to spare the innocent child?

Apart from the one interview Carrara has already told Shinichi about, the only hint to Tenoh Haruka's family background can be found on a photo where she poses in front of a Ferrari with a rapier similar to the one M Jean Black used when he showed his best fencing moves to Hattori.

Beholding the car advertisement, which might as well serve as an illustration for Tenoh's incontestable magnificence, Shinichi realizes that the "distant ruler of heaven" is not a title anyone can carry with the great presence needed not to appear ridiculously ostentatious. For Tenoh Haruka, however—Shinichi acknowledges after a glance at another photo of hers—the imperious-sounding name seemed most fitting.

Her friends, too, have speaking names. Oddly enough, these names also fit their appearances and behaviour well: Hino Rei with her fiery temper and seriousness, Kino Makoto with her natural warmth and grounded personality, Chiba Mamoru, who is just as protective as his name suggests, and Kaioh Michiru—the "mature king of the sea"—whose name is just as majestic as that of her life partner.

Kaioh Michiru's seascape paintings are intriguing even to Shinichi, who is not a connoisseur in any sense of the word. The young painter is famous for her effective use of colour, her great finesse, and her elegant lines. On the few paintings of hers Shinichi finds in _Tomorrow's Artists_ , he can always discern an empty space or line separating the sea and the sky. Was it an admission of a difference too vast to be bridged by love? Or did it mean that while they were always together on one painting, they were also always apart?

Tenoh's opera started at six p.m. and had two long intermissions. The first began at half past six and lasted until seven p.m. while the second started at seven twenty and was scheduled to end at eight o'clock. The third act, however, started and ended late, as Gentile discovered Tenoh's corpse at half past eight in her dressing room.

Carrara has only sneered at Shinichi's pedantry when Shinichi asserted on the way to Carrara's apartment that the time and order of Seiya's actions don't add up—a reaction Shinichi is certainly not going to get from the meticulous, time-fixated Hakuba. It is possible that one person was mistaken about the time, as Kino Makoto didn't strike Shinichi as an acute observer who can remember time to the exact minute. But even if a clock or watch had been a bit too slow or too fast, the fact that the witnesses couldn't agree on the order of two simple actions without consciously trying to conceal the truth is most improbable.

Between eight and a quarter past eight, Luigi Gentile was in the backstage area to inform Hino Rei about the delay of the third act and then went to the bar to drown his sorrows. Seiya, who had come from the back entrance, claimed that he chatted to the usher after talking to Gentile, which the usher confirmed in her talk with Ran. According to Alessandra di Giorgio, Seiya talked with her from six past eight to sixteen past eight, which means he must have talked to Gentile a few minutes past eight (Gentile needed a few minutes to go to Hino and then to the bar), which is a rather narrow timespan but not impossible—considering that Seiya and Gentile can't stand each other and most probably only exchanged one or two sentences at five or six past eight.

Gentile returned to Tenoh's room at a quarter past eight and, as a consequence, must have seen Seiya talking to the usher at the entrance of the hall. However, he didn't mention it, perhaps because he is too mean-spirited to provide an alibi for his hated rival.

Chiba Mamoru, on the other hand, claimed that Seiya chatted with the usher _before_ talking to Gentile, a mistake Shinichi wouldn't have expected from a man who is so observant and intelligent. If Chiba was right, this would mean that Seiya talked to Gentile not before but after Gentile went to Tenoh for the second time. Nevertheless, this is impossible, as Seiya was in the backstage café with Kino only a few minutes after a quarter past eight. In fact, Gentile and he must have passed each other twice—when Gentile went to Tenoh at eight fifteen (while Seiya was still chatting with the usher) and when Gentile left the backstage area again (while Seiya went to the backstage café) without either of them mentioning it.

If Alessandra di Giorgio's watch was slightly slow, Seiya could have gone to the backstage area just a few minutes before Gentile went to Tenoh so that they didn't see each other. The clock in the backstage café kept good time, as Shinichi has checked. Hino's clock, though, was ten minutes slow, which means Seiya visited her a few minutes before half past eight (when Gentile discovered Tenoh's body) while Hino stubbornly insisted that he must have visited her at a quarter past eight. Seiya claims that he visited her _before_ he visited Kino, which was impossible but backed up by both Hino and Kino—the former because she would do anything to protect him and the latter because she is too gullible not to trust his words.

The most curious thing about Seiya's lie is that it actually doesn't provide Seiya with an alibi at all but rather undermines it. If he had really left Kino Makoto about twenty past eight without visiting Hino Rei (because he had already seen Hino at a quarter past eight), he would have had more time to kill Tenoh instead of less. His lie doesn't have any other effect than putting himself at a disadvantage. Since ten minutes is too short a time for anyone to murder Tenoh, wipe away all the fingerprints, and leave Tenoh's dressing room unnoticed before Gentile arrives, anyway, Shinichi can't see why Seiya should feel the need to lie about the order of the visits at all.

The catch of this case is the fact that the culprit simply didn't have time to kill Tenoh and wipe away the fingerprints. The only person who could have pulled it off was, ironically, only Ai, who had fifteen minutes without disturbance and who would undoubtedly have been shielded by Seiya, the only person who would have noticed if she wasn't in his dressing room when he returned after his chat with Kino. They could even have cleaned Tenoh's room together, a theory which is possible but ridiculous and far-fetched and which Shinichi instantly dismisses with a shake of his head. Apart from this being too risky a plan to consider, Ai is the last person who could have done it.

Turning the small piece of watercolour card Ai has slipped into his trouser pocket in his hand, Shinichi inspects it with the magnifying glass he always carries with him. "Tenoh Akira" has been written on the back of a heavy watercolour board, on which the upper half of the watermark of the famous French Arches Aquarelle can be read. Shinichi knows the watermark well because he has often seen large watercolour paintings on rough, cold-pressed Arches watercolour paper at the shows he visited with Ran, the Detective Boys, or his mother. The card he is holding now is smooth and hot-pressed. The red marker streaks (probably alcohol-based) are already fading, from which Shinichi deduces that the card must have been exposed to sunlight for an extended time even though it can't be old and has been treated very well, for the paper is still a creamy white.

Tenoh Akira's name has been written on the back side, as Shinichi can easily deduce from the watermark. The other side—the front—which must have shown a drawing or painting, however, has been removed with a very sharp cutter.

The card was not written by Ai—the handwriting doesn't match hers. In the same way, the M on the painting and the note in _The Return of Sherlock Holmes_ can't have been written by her either. But does he really know what her real handwriting was like? Prudent as she was, she always took care to write in a childish scrawl and make enough mistakes to pass as a normal child. She was, unlike him, always on guard. But she also never painted voluntarily, preferring reading, acting, even PE to art.

Why did she give him the card in such an unorthodox fashion? Slipping it into his trouser pocket… Did she only want to hide it from Carrara or from Seiya, too? Seiya knows about it, as Shinichi has seen him throw a glance at her before reading the message on his phone. But he didn't show the slightest reaction, as if he either hadn't noticed or didn't care.

A buzz announces the arrival of a mail Shinichi's father has sent him. It contains a short message—"I enjoyed Tenoh-san's races. She always won!"—and a photo with his mother's strange comment: "Most probably not working for anyone. Only a classmate of the girl who was always staring at your face."

"Infinity," says the caption of the photo dated eight years ago, which is a group photo of about fifty to sixty teenagers from twelve to eighteen in green trousers or skirts, brown jackets, and pristine white shirts. The three familiar faces in the centre of the picture are beaming at the viewer with radiant optimism. Tenoh Haruka, Kaioh Michiru, and Ai are standing directly in front of Infinity's emblem, a black star, fixing the camera with three different smiles in their bright eyes. Kaioh Michiru (with shoulder-length curls) is all gentleness and Tenoh Haruka (who is wearing the male uniform and whose looks didn't seem to have changed much in eight years) unconcealed pride. But staggered by her ballet dancer's bun and her wide-eyed, carefree gaze, Shinichi almost didn't recognize Ai.

He once thought that she was always unhappy within the Organization and that she only opened up when she befriended the Detective Boys due to her remark that she often ate alone during lunch. But now Shinichi realizes that he didn't know her at all. There are so many facets of her character he hasn't yet discovered. And he wonders whether he will ever know all of them if she is so infuriatingly changeable, so disturbingly mysterious.

Lingering on the face of each student for a few seconds to memorize all of them, Shinichi assures himself that Seiya is not present. Professor Tomoe, who (just like in the photo on the beach with Tenoh) doesn't look mentally challenged but only resembles the stereotypical scientist with his thick glasses and unkempt hair, has draped his arm around a skinny black-haired girl in a good-humoured, fatherly way. Nothing suggests that less than a year later, this genial man would burn down his own academy—an act which cost one person his life. What did Tenoh Akira do in the laboratories of Infinity when the students were all watching his sister's race? Searching for a prototype of APTX 4869? And where was Ai when it happened?

Why did Kaioh Michiru want to talk to Seiya so much that she would wait for him at his boat while he evaded her by giving Hino his keys and asked her to drive his friends home? If his ears are really as good as he claimed—and Shinichi doesn't think that Seiya was only bragging—he must have overheard Kaioh's interrogation from his dressing room and known that she would be waiting for him outside.

 _Super Bowl_! _Stolen base_! M means "Me"… Either Seiya is the type that has to crack jokes incessantly or he was making fun of Shinichi because he knew exactly what Shinichi was talking about. How did he get to know Professor Tomoe or Stinger, a codename member who rejected the Organization's dress code? Seiya seems to be holding all the answers to Shinichi's questions despite his innocent facade. And it irks Shinichi that he can't make sense of the singer's lunatic behaviour.

Even Seiya's name only alludes to how unreadable he is, Shinichi thinks in a burst of anger. For the "field of stars"—dazzling with its alluring sparkles in the night—lulls one into a false sense of familiarity with recognizable patterns but is in fact unapproachable and distant, easy to see but almost impossible to touch. Stars are thousands of light years away and sometimes already burned out in the past.

x.


	17. Part Two: Hurrying home...

 

x.

_Oh what a hit we made_

_We came on next to closing_

_Best on the bill, lovers until_

_Love left the masquerade_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Hurrying home…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

e.

Hurrying home in the pouring rain, Seiya shudders at all the hypothetical manifestations of Shiho's wrath he is undoubtedly going to suffer. During just one night, he has lost her painkillers, embarrassed her in front of Kudo and commissario Carrara, angered her by rehearsing the kiss in the second act of the musical with Rei-chan, tied her to the Rialto Bridge, and is now coming home much too late, drenched and chilled to the bone. He can only hope that the reunion with her much admired detective has put her into a generous mood. In their four years together, Seiya has never been forced to spend a whole night on the tiny sofa Michiru-sama left (he is positive Michiru-sama only bought it to punish Haruka-san after an especially irksome flirt). And he doesn't feel the slightest wish to make the experience now.

Knowing Shiho, she is going to do something else, something evil his mind can't ever come up with even though she won't have the heart to ruin Rei-chan's first appearance in a musical. So what will it be, he wonders hazily as he enters the ancient palazzo and climbs the old stairs. The lights in their living room are out, as he could see from the street. His vengeful angel must have fallen asleep although the possibility exists that she is waiting for him in the pitch dark just to trip him.

No one is in the corridor when he steps across the threshold—and he can't feel her presence at all, which is odd since his senses are usually spot on. After switching on the light, Seiya swiftly passes through the corridor into the living room in case she is waiting for him there and has fallen asleep in the dark. Her bag and handbag are lying in front of the fireplace. She hasn't unpacked her stuff and hanged them on the hooks as she would always do after coming home…

Storming into the corridor in two strides, Seiya assures himself with a growing sense of dread that her coat is not hanging on the coatstand and that her shoes are missing as well. Their bedroom is empty, as he has already feared. And for a moment, as the memories of Odango's piercing scream and Kakyuu's crushed body in the sterile hospital room are simultaneously flashing across his mind, Seiya swears in a fit of blazing fury and long bottled-up resentment that if someone has taken Shiho hostage, he will make the people responsible for this suffer.

Eight years ago, Seiya would have gone straight to Alan's hotel room and force the eminent intermediary to bring him to this bumptious mystery "client". Now that he has learned to control his temper, however, Seiya only takes a deep breath, spends a few seconds thinking of alternative explanations for Shiho's disappearance, and rummages through their closet for their only umbrella.

To his relief, he discovers that the umbrella is missing as well. Opening her wardrobe, he finds the midnight-blue dress she has been wearing orderly draped on a wooden hanger. Her last pair of jeans is also missing (the other two are in the laundry, which he has yet to do), as well as the fluffy red pullover she bought last month. Tired of waiting for him at home, she must have gone out to search for him.

Making a mental note to beg his girlfriend to use the mobile phone he gave her on her last birthday in the hope that it would help her overcome her post-Pandora's-Box phobia about phones and computers, Seiya grabs a raincoat to go out again. Who knows when Shiho is coming home if she is worried sick. This has already happened once, and that time they both spent the whole night combing the city for each other.

e.

He finds her at the "Torture of Hope", as she would always call it after reading Tiziano Scarpa's city guide—a large marine-blue umbrella at the fourth column. She looks like a tomboy in his cap with her hair tucked up. And a glance at her wrist shows him that she has—cautious as she always is—put on her stun-gun wristwatch.

"Don't shoot!" He raises his hands with an impish grin despite the pang of guilt he feels at the sight of the dark rings under her eyes. "If I spend the whole night on the ground in this weather, I'll be croaking throughout the whole musical."

"It would serve you right," she sighs in relief and resignation, holding the umbrella over his head. She is more exhausted than he has thought, as she doesn't seem to have much energy left to be angry at him anymore. "Where have you been all the time?" She wrinkles her nose as she brings it to his hair. "Don't tell me you've secretly smoked! What brand is it? Dunhill?"

Only a friendly meeting with a chain-smoker and old acquaintance, Seiya truthfully explains although he is reluctant to go into detail. Alan, a former French _agent motard_ , has come from Paris for a little holiday and wanted to see Seiya before his departure.

"In the middle of the night?" She narrows her eyes.

He would have met up with Alan earlier but he didn't have time. In truth, Alan has tried to contact him more than once, asking for a private talk, but he was always busy rehearsing and working on the songs for Taiki and Yaten's next album.

"Was that the reason why you tied me to the Rialto Bridge?" she asks in a menacing voice, digging her nails into his arm she is now holding. Taking the umbrella from her so that she no longer has to stretch her arm to hold it over them both, he admits that it was one of the reasons, as Alan wanted to see him alone.

"Why?" she lifts her eyes to him and continues walking without looking at the street, fixing her troubled gaze on him while he is making an effort to break the news to her that they are still being followed. Deciding that telling her the truth and soothe her afterwards is still better than hiding it at the risk that she gets a heart attack the next time she discovers that she is being stalked, Seiya gives her a concise summary of the situation, omitting only a few ugly and unnecessary details like Hakuba Saguru's falcon, who has been shot.

Some politician has become paranoid about his or her files (Seiya suspects it's "his files" since he has an inkling of who the mystery client is) stored in Pandora's Box. And since Alan is a well-known mediator, who once worked for Seiya's parents years ago and knows Seiya since his early childhood, the big name went out of his way to hire the excessively expensive Alan to negotiate with Seiya. The misunderstandings have already been cleared up even though Seiya is not happy about the stalkers they have sent. The guy who broke into their apartment last time was, as it turned out, actually a spy from them as well.

She immediately stiffens as she hears him mention his parents. And Seiya has already regretted bringing them up so thoughtlessly when she unexpectedly loosens up and beams, giving him a genuine smile.

"I suppose that means that they're going to leave us alone from now on?"

"I hope so. At least this one isn't going to bother us anymore. As for the others, I think ignoring them and wait until they've forgotten about it is the only thing we can do right now."

As if to illustrate his comment, two black-clad strangers, who have just come around the corner, are marching towards them with their hands hidden in their pockets, passing them with their eyes inquisitively glued to their faces. Probably only tourists who have got lost after a late-night movie or an evening out in Harry's Bar... While both Seiya and Shiho are suddenly alert, neither of them flinch or change their pace. The strangers disappear in the opposite direction after turning to the left, complaining to each other in American English that the street names and numbers don't make sense on this tiny isle.

She is growing accustomed to all the stalkers and even to his family background, Seiya observes in relief. The sheer insurmountable barrier he felt whenever she was reminded of it seems to make way for a tacit acceptance despite her fear of his parents. A mortal terror, which always seemed to worsen after she has spent time with Haruka-san.

"Have they threatened you?" she breaks the silence between them with her no-nonsense, matter-of-fact voice. "If you lie to me about this, I'll feed you APTX so that your physical appearance finally matches your mental age."

No, not in the least, he appeases her. On the contrary, Alan was perfectly pleasant and polite. Understandably, Alan's politician-client is paranoid about their own safety as blackmailed people with dark secrets always are. One could almost feel sorry for them if they weren't such a pest. Alan, who is a gifted mediator, is doing his best to soothe their tattered nerves.

Also, something good came out of this, Seiya informs her. He has learned that they know next to nothing about her past, as Alan referred to her as a "nondescript" girlfriend, who is stringing him along.

It is much too risky for them to use her as a lever under these circumstances. He must have convinced them by now that he is crazy enough to let everyone on the list go down in disgrace and cause a wonderful mess of gargantuan proportions if they dare to touch her. Since Alan's client doesn't know that she is the creator of APTX, they wouldn't even have an excuse for kidnapping her when they are questioned about why they have carelessly risked other people's secrets in their paranoia...

"I'm not worried about me." The clasp of her hand around his arm tightens. To all appearances, she is still haunted by Haruka-san's dire prediction that Seiya was doomed the moment the information was leaked that he was near Pandora's Box (No. 1!) in the night of the explosion.

"Don't worry, somehow I'll get myself out of this as always," he brushes her concern aside.

"You should be more careful," she says after a second of silent contemplation. "If you bite the dust before me, I'm going to give all our flowers to Aino-san, who will feed them to Artemis or Hino-san's crows."

"How can you even consider giving away our kids? I'll bequeath them to Taiki in my will so that such an atrocity won't ever happen."

She seems no longer in a bantering mood, as she does not respond but only gives him a pained gaze, which he returns with an untroubled smile.

"Come on, Ai," he lightly says, spontaneously using her other name, which until now has felt unfamiliar to his lips. "You'll only get another migraine attack if you conjure up the worst-case scenarios all the time."

In an unintentionally cat-like gesture, she wordlessly rubs her damp face against his shoulder and puts her arms around his neck. And they stop for a moment to share a kiss while the rain is still pouring down on them.

e.

Lying half on top of him with her arms and legs entwined with his (she loves the position because it allows his legs to warm her cold feet), she is slowly drifting into sleep while her fluttering eyelashes are tickling his skin. Rearranging her head on his shoulder, Seiya takes care not to brush against her love necklace—a thin, hard, cool chain on her bed-warmed skin, which has begun to irritate him a bit whenever he accidentally touches it.

It is almost impossible to fight against Haruka-san's corrupting influence, Seiya thinks, since he can remember that the necklace didn't upset him at all before she (repeatedly, incessantly!) taunted him. As far as Seiya is concerned, Shiho can even wear Kudo's pendant all day without him terrorizing her with irrational jealousy like Gin did. Refusing to let anyone imprison himself whether physically or emotionally, Seiya doesn't feel the slightest inclination to cage her. Whenever she tries to tease him by raving too much about Kudo's integrity, coolness, and brilliance, he would simply shut her up with a series of ardent kisses and remind her of his own indisputably strong points by pushing her back on their (uncomfortable, soon-to-be-replaced) little sofa.

Dawn is already breaking but he is still wide awake, using the welcome silence to scour the happenings of the past weeks for possible mistakes, miscalculations, and cracks in Haruka-san's ingenious plan. Her latest scheme—daring and asinine as always—was supposed to free all of them from Pandora's Box's curse but also entailed ruining her own life and Seiya's and Shiho's to boot. Nevertheless, it didn't seem to bother Haruka-san much. She was always cold and radical whenever she believed a sacrifice to be inevitable.

Shiho is fast asleep now, as he can tell from her regular breathing and the weight of her head. Gingerly, Seiya disentangles his legs from hers, places her head on the pillow, pulls the duvet over her body, and slides out of the bed without making a sound.

Slipping into his bathrobe, he takes his pen and his notebook—both birthday presents from Shiho—to make himself comfortable on the piano stool in their living room. He has barely opened it when his gaze falls on his initials Shiho has drawn on the first page. The "S.K." gives him a strange sense of déjà vu he can't explain at first. But then he recalls that he has seen the same initials on Kudo's time-worn notebook in reversed order when Kudo put away the card with their address and phone number Shiho had given him.

What is Kudo doing at this very moment, sleeping or scribbling into his notebook as well? Just for fun, Seiya imagines himself into the role of his opponent, automatically copies Kudo's gestures from memory, and begins to pace the room with the impatience of a young Sherlock Holmes, who has just smelled a case and who is not going to give up until he has brought it to a conclusion...

Snapping out of his playful mood with a vengeance, Seiya proceeds to speculate about what Kudo must have already deduced. For if he discovers a crack on the smooth surface no matter how small, the mystery freak is going to follow the trail to the end—something Seiya can't allow to happen. To resolve the chaos they all have been plunged in, Seiya needs to distract Kudo until the corpse has been cremated. And since it was a cinch for Seiya to distract him tonight for reasons Seiya can easily guess, Seiya feels sorry for Shiho's friend, as he was once in a similar situation...

"Insomniac again?"

She is standing in her thin silk negligee at the door, blinking at him with teary eyes. Yawning, she pours herself a glass of water and complains in a sleepy drawl, "My feet are cold. Where is my living hot bottle when I need him?"

Taking off his bathrobe to drape it over her shoulders, he walks into the bedroom to get another bathrobe for himself and then returns to take her on his lap, rubbing her feet, which are already frozen even though she has just come out of bed.

"The nap at noon was much too long," he justifies himself. "I got a few ideas for the next song and wanted to use the pretty notebook you've given me."

"Nice try but wrong answer," she smirks. "Come back into bed at once or I'll get myself a replacement hot bottle."

"No replacement hot bottle allowed. Not even a second one for solitary hours, if you know what I mean."

"Every woman should have at least two," she muses. "One to use regularly and one when the other is not available."

"I'm shocked by your loose morals!"

"It's only your fault. You've ruined me completely."

"As if there was anything to ruin in the first place," he chuckles and coughs when she throws him a sinister gaze.

e.

Later, when they are lying in bed with her unbelievably cold feet against his warm skin, Shiho seems able to feel the pleasant drowsiness of sleep overcoming him, as she unscrupulously misuses the situation to elicit a promise he is going to regret soon.

"When Kudo visits us, I expect you to be the perfect host so that he won't doubt my sound judgement and wonder why I'm still living with you!"

"I could tell him why you're still living with me," he murmurs, tracing the outline of her waist and hips through the enticingly soft negligee before he pulls it over her head. "But I doubt that he really wants to know it."

"Don't shamelessly congratulate yourself and just promise me!" She pushes herself on her elbow to give him a very promising kiss, which is even more distracting now that she is no longer wearing her negligee but only her transparent nightdress.

"All right, all right, I promise," he sighs. "I'll be tame and nice and as perfect as Michiru-sama's Stradivarius after tuning." Holding her slightly away from him to keep a cool head, Seiya decides to turn the game around and elicit a promise from her as well. She should tell Kudo the truth about their relationship as soon as possible so that the poor guy doesn't nurture false hopes. "You don't know how depressing it is—to believe that one has a real chance and then learn that one has never had any at all."

"Of course I know how it feels," she frowns. "But it's obvious to everyone that we're together. He must know it, too. And you've completely misread his concern for me."

Seiya is sure he hasn't misread anything. Even though he did tease Kudo a bit, his actions weren't more irritating than the pranks of a wayward kid. Kudo's instant dislike of him must stem from other feelings she isn't aware of just because she hasn't been looking for them.

Or perhaps she isn't aware of Kudo's possessiveness because she is afraid of misunderstandings and disappointments, Seiya suddenly thinks. It wouldn't be the first time that she has misread Kudo's gestures, she must have believed, calling to mind Kudo's unintentional love declaration, whose reminder she is still wearing.

"Ah, you're jealous," she smiles with sadistic delight, her fingers toying with the thin necklace he has been staring at without noticing.

"No, I'm not!" He pushes her back on her pillow. "I'm just wondering why you're still wearing the necklace if you don't wear the pendant anymore."

The mocking smile in her eyes is replaced by an expression of complete confusion as she is twirling the chain around her neck.

"The pendant is too large and doesn't go well with my tops and dresses. I'm still wearing the necklace because it's the only one I have. But if it bothers you so much—"

"Ah, just keep it on!" He laughs, trailing kisses along her collarbone. "You can wear a whole jewellery set from him if you want. It doesn't concern me at all."

"I didn't say I was going to take it off for you since I like it too much." She smiles. "I only wanted to say that if you can't stand it, you'll have to buy me another one."

She pulls him down to her for another lingering kiss, stripping him of his pyjamas with her nimble fingers. And in the ensuing renegotiation of already established rules and boundaries of their ringless and paperless contract, the inconspicuous little necklace doesn't disturb him in the least, for he has a matter of greater urgency to take care of now.

e.

Physical intimacy tends to stimulate emotional intimacy just as vice versa, Shiho once again notes, as the question she has felt so apprehensive about for the whole night is now out in the open, hovering over them like an invisible spectre. Partly an inquiry, partly a confession, the seemingly harmless sentence has left her lips before she could even consider containing herself.

_My packet of APAH… Did you steal it?_

Astounded by her question, he shifts his position to gaze quizzically into her eyes. He must have taken it, she thinks, anxious about the inescapable talk but nonetheless relieved that they won't have to tiptoe around the issue anymore.

"If you still have a few capsules left, just give them back," she nonchalantly remarks to lighten the mood. "It's a pain to make them, and I don't have any left at home."

Stroking her hair with the gentle touch she has always liked about him, he slowly shakes his head.

"I know how bad your migraine was. I'd have given you your painkillers immediately if I had found them."

Undoubtedly, he is telling the truth. But this realization doesn't calm her down as she has thought but rather alarms her, for the next question is already taking shape in her mind, causing her considerable distress, as she can't answer it at all: If Seiya doesn't have the packet, in whose possession is it now?

As if he could read her mind, he gives her a reassuring smile and ruffles her hair with childish pleasure.

"Don't worry. If someone has taken it, I'm going to get it back for you."

e.

At least that "someone" can't be Haruka-san, whom he can no longer reach, Seiya thinks, wondering for a second whether he should ask Shiho why she has given Kudo the watercolour card and then decides against it, preferring to wait until she tells him on her own. After seeing her reaction when he told her he didn't know where her packet of APAH was, he knows better than to disturb the peace she needs after the stress Haruka-san has put them through. Like all people who can't enjoy happiness even when it falls directly into their lap, Haruka-san always had to react to the first signs of trouble with drastic and downright destructive measures, which didn't benefit anyone.

Pushing away the sorrow which has come over him and is threatening to settle on his mind, Seiya admits for once that he, too, is going to miss his old partner in crime before he recalls the events of the evening and bids the ghosts farewell. Focused on the present and the future, Seiya usually doesn't dwell on things he can no longer change. Let bygones be bygones, Kakyuu once said, and hold on to all your memories without chewing on them until there is nothing left to savour.

Only once, Seiya allows himself to return to the moment he walked up to Haruka-san and flung the card on the piano, watching her reaction with a mixture of curiosity, indignation, and disbelief...

_Van Gogh's beautiful starlit night_ , she mocks in an allusion to his name. _How would our mad professor abbreviate it, S.N.?_

Feigning innocence, she offers him a cup of coffee and casually tells him what a pain it was to guess the identity of the students Tomoe was talking about—especially back then at Infinity where at least five people shared the same initials, which might have been the reason why Tomoe usually preferred to abbreviate the nicknames instead of the real ones. "So what are your initials, Seiya? S.F. for Star Field? S.L. for Star Light? Or S.N. for Starry Night?"

"Just cut the crap! You know exactly what he called me." Seiya runs out of patience. "But that's not the reason why I'm here." He turns the card so that the back is now visible. "I usually don't interfere with your schemes since Shiho is really old enough to take care of herself, but—" He has to pause as he can feel his cursed quick temper flare at her cold indifference. "This time I won't hold back! Why are you doing this? You aren't only endangering me or yourself. You're also endangering _her_!"

e.

_End of Part Two_


	18. Part Three: Male or female...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Male or female…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

"Male or female? What do you mean with you 'don't know?'"

Carrara's gruff voice bores into Shinichi's consciousness, jerking him awake at once. The commissario, who has already shaved and got dressed, is now pacing the corridor with his phone pressed against his ear, an almost empty cup with coffee residue in his hand, and a perplexed expression on his face. "How ridiculous can this case get? First you tell me you can't say how she died. And now you claim that you can't even say for sure which sex the corpse you just performed the autopsy on has? Male, female, or hermaphrodite. Just pick one. Which one is it?"

When his gaze falls on Shinichi, who is standing at the door of the living room, slightly crumpled but alert, Carrara gives his guest a nod and returns to the kitchen to refill his coffee cup. "Ah, I see. Maybe the Japanese or the French police can help us out. And I'll have a look at her passport… Yes, this is pretty weird. I'm sorry, too… Gallo wants to see me this morning—he's going to tell me to stay out of this disaster for sure. You can bet on it! Just get some shut-eye now before you work yourself to death… Thanks again for telling me first. Ciao."

"Mastectomy?" Shinichi deduces.

"Yes, and probably a hormone treatment as well. I've never heard anything about it in the press. And I bet no one knows when and where she had it done! Andrea wondered whether she had officially changed her sex. I can't tell him yet. But the answer is probably waiting for me in the Questura if the Japanese police or the French police know about this." Carrara takes a sip of his coffee and furrows his brows even more until they touch each other above his nose. "My superior also demanded a heart-to-heart with me in an hour. As you can tell, the case will be closed soon unless I can prove that she was murdered." He opens the old mahogany cupboard and takes out a clean cup. "Coffee?"

"No, thanks, just a cup of water for me," Shinichi fumbles around in the pockets of his coat for the last three remaining capsules of APAH, Ai's recommended dose in the morning. Before continuing this investigation, he needs to return to the hotel to fetch his on-the-go APAH bottle for November if he wants to stay human until lunch. "I gather Andrea didn't find any poison in her body?"

"No," Carrara darts Shinichi a frustrated glance before pouring water into the clean cup. "No trace of poison or anything else indicating that she died an unnatural death. In other words: her perfectly healthy heart simply stopped beating. The estimated time of death is from ten p.m. to midnight, which is absurd since she was already dead at half past eight. Andrea says he needs more time to double-check the results. But it's unlikely that anything new will turn up. It can't be Andrea's fault because he is always very thorough. The best medical examiner I know."

"How was her general condition?" Shinichi asks, stopping in the middle of his movement. "Did she drink, smoke, or do drugs?" He doesn't dare to be more specific about what he is thinking of for fear of arousing Carrara's suspicions.

"There is a tiny amount of morphine in her stomach contents. But since everything about her was in tip-top condition, Andrea thinks she was more or less clean. It might as well be the remains of an unknown painkiller."

In view of the current situation, Shinichi lets the three capsules he has already pulled out disappear in his fist, and dives once more into his pocket to bring out his disposable razor, which he is always carrying with him, instead.

"I don't know if you really have time to shave. I'd use the time to take those painkillers if I were you," Carrara remarks with a sharp edge to his voice, handing Shinichi a cup of water. The commissario, who is a morning person, is a good deal more observant than Megure-keibu has ever been. Pity it seems that his sentimental mood from last night has been supplanted by his irritation.

"What about the fingerprints?" Shinichi nonchalantly asks, ignoring Carrara's allusion to APAH, which he can now swallow openly instead of pretending to shave.

Only Signora Tenoh's fingerprints in the room, Carrara shrugs. "Her fingerprints were on the cup, on the chair, on the table, on the vase, on the doorknob, on the shelf, even on the frame of the painting. Of course there were unknown fingerprints—yours—" he gives Shinichi a reproachful look, "on the shelf as well."

They've also found an unknown handprint on the doorknob from the outside—a right hand which, judging from its size, probably belongs to a man. Interestingly, it was only one clearly defined handprint as if he had grabbed the doorknob to open the door before he changed his mind and didn't enter the room.

"I'm having the handprint compared to the fingerprints on Signor Seiya Kou's glass in the café. Of course it's also possible that the handprint belongs to Signor Mamoru Chiba, who could have touched the doorknob when he entered the dressing room to inspect Signora Tenoh's corpse."

This hypothesis would explain why there is a print of a right hand on the knob of a door which swings open to the left, Shinichi thinks. The door had probably been left ajar by Gentile, who wore gloves, and Chiba, who is right-handed, touched the doorknob with his right hand…

On closer examination, something about this picture looks wrong. Since Chiba came from the stage, he came from the left. In this situation, even a right-handed person would usually use their left hand to open a door that swings to the left. It would make more sense if the handprint belonged to Seiya, who touched the doorknob after visiting Kino on the way to Hino's dressing room, as he came from the right, which, once again, fuels Shinichi's suspicion that Seiya visited Kino and stopped at Tenoh's dressing room before he went to Hino…

Nevertheless, since life is sometimes unbearably random, Shinichi has to admit that the fact that the handprint belongs to someone's right hand doesn't really have to mean anything. Cases are always full of them, distracting details that seem unnatural at first glance but end up being nothing more than the typical standard deviation from the norm.

In any case, Hakuba's informant was wrong when it came to the fingerprints, claiming that there were no fingerprints in Tenoh's room at all apart from the ones on the bookshelf and on the painting frame while there were actually Tenoh's fingerprints on the cup—a detail which makes suicide a possible explanation. In order not to incriminate her friends, Tenoh could have wiped off Kino's fingerprints from the cup even though it seems strange to Shinichi that there were no other fingerprints in the room at all apart from Tenoh's and his own. Haruka loved her privacy, Hino said. She could even have cleaned her dressing room before committing suicide, which sounds fanciful but is nevertheless a possibility Shinichi can't ignore.

"And there were really no unknown fingerprints on the doorknob from the inside?" Shinichi asks.

"Only Signora Tenoh's, as I told you. Hence we can assume that Signora Tenoh asked Signora Kino for a cup of water, then went back to her room and died of unexplained causes. Unless you can come up with an explanation of how she could have been murdered, I'll have to declare her death a natural one."

"You aren't serious," Shinichi calmly observes, downing his capsules of APAH before returning the cup.

Carrara places the cup on the counter, wraps his scarf around his neck, puts on his coat, and grabs his bag and his keys with a resigned grimace.

"I don't have another option. But this isn't a very satisfying ending to our case, isn't it? She can't have died like that."

"Why can't you simply say that the cause of her death is still unknown and hold an inquest?" Shinichi asks, slightly irritated, although he already knows the answer. From what he has seen and what Hakuba has told him on the phone, it is obvious that Carrara's boss, the vice questore, is pressing the commissario to put the investigation on hold.

"I'm going to talk it over with my boss now," sighs Carrara. "But under these circumstances, it's impossible for me to continue the case without knowing what she really died of. No poison, no arrest! She had many influential friends. I have too much to lose and too little to gain."

"There are so many unsolved questions left," Shinichi suggests while slipping into his coat and his shoes. "The lack of fingerprints apart from Tenoh's, for example. A dressing room is usually full of random fingerprints. There are also Hino's slow clock, the handprint on the doorknob, and—"

"Not enough to continue the case," Carrara chants, leading Shinichi out of his apartment. "If we had to follow such 'clues' in every single case we get, we'd never solve anything. A slow clock and a handprint on a doorknob… So what? You can't arrest anyone for touching a doorknob or putting back a clock! As for the lack of fingerprints in Signora Tenoh's room: She was famous for being very fastidious. Do you remember what Signora Kino said about her? She loved her privacy so much that no one dared come into her dressing room."

However, Kino Makoto also mentioned that Seiya had robbed Tenoh of her sofa, Shinichi counters. Unless Tenoh compulsively wiped her doorknob all the time, Seiya must have left his fingerprints on the doorknob (from the outside and from the inside) when he left. A more logical conclusion is that someone else had wiped the doorknob to get rid of hard evidence or that Tenoh had done it on her own. Natural death is most improbable. It could only be either murder or suicide.

Perhaps Signora Tenoh really did wipe her doorknob every time she entered her dressing room, Carrara deadpans. Geniuses always have their little and not-so-little quirks just like the so-called "normal" people—a dying species! She was also a compulsive reader, according to Signor Seiya Kou, and kept reading before a concert instead of preparing for it—something professional musicians almost never do. In a sense, she was exasperatingly unprofessional. What can one expect from a classical pianist who let the audience wait for half an hour before going onstage? Even though Carrara himself was a fan of hers, it wouldn't surprise him if she had many other quirks the public didn't know about.

"You don't really believe that she died naturally," Shinichi comments on the stairs to the main entrance. "There was nothing wrong with her. She looked perfectly healthy."

"Perfectly healthy even after her death," Ai's voice—which Shinichi has begun to hear in his head ever since her disappearance three years and eleven months ago—adds. "How are you going to explain that, Kudo-kun?"

Carrara sighs.

"I don't really know what to believe anymore. On the one hand, I can't imagine why her heart should suddenly have stopped beating. She was young, athletic, and extremely fit. Andrea said she was in unnaturally great shape. You could think she had still been taking vitamins and running four circuits of the track every morning. On the other hand, people actually do die of unknown reasons all the time, and investigating the case as a murder case could posthumously compromise her reputation. The reporters will be a pain to deal with as well, especially since Signor Seiya Kou was near the scene of the crime."

"But you can't close the case now! You can't let a murderer get away so easily!" Shinichi insists, more emphatically than he intended to. He can tell from his observations that Carrara isn't the type of investigator for whom justice is only an abstract word. Carrara wouldn't ever let a murderer escape—much less a murderer who ruthlessly killed his favourite musician in her own dressing room before the final act of her first opera.

As for the theory that she committed suicide: for which purpose should Tenoh have killed herself directly before the third act of her opera? If she had been considerate enough to clean her dressing room before killing herself, she would have chosen another setting for her suicide. Obviously, Tenoh was murdered by a friend or an acquaintance. Was the setting of her murder a display of the culprit's confidence, a warning directed at one of her friends, or was it even part of a plan, which couldn't have been realized otherwise?

Shinichi's hypothesis that Seiya has given Tenoh APAH against her headaches and poisoned her by accident has become most improbable considering the lack of unknown fingerprints in Tenoh's dressing room. In addition, Seiya is not the type to panic and wipe off the fingerprints in Tenoh's dressing room in a hurry if it had only been an accident—apart from the fact that he wouldn't have had the time to do it unless he had planned and even practised it in advance. If Seiya had been innocent, he would simply have asked Ai or, if he couldn't find her, Chiba Mamoru for help. Ai, the creator of the drug, might have known a way to treat Tenoh's allergic reaction while Chiba would have had the necessary medical knowledge in case Tenoh needed on-the-spot treatment…

In fact, Shinichi is certain that the one thing Seiya was honest about was his devil-may-care attitude towards his reputation. Like most tyrants, lunatics, geniuses—people who have grown up with a (justified or unjustified?) sense of immense power—Seiya places his personal perception and the rules he has set for himself above social conventions. For better or worse, what other people think of Seiya Kou is for Seiya Kou himself a matter of total indifference. And Shinichi doesn't doubt that Ai's amiable fake-employer would only laugh it off if the reporters directly accused him of murder.

They are walking along Canal Grande past a street musician, who has just begun to play "Charade" on his battered accordion. Hearing the familiar tune, Shinichi turns in surprise. The young man, however, only looks through him with a faint distracted smile that doesn't reach his eyes. Crouching down to place a coin into the musician's open bag, Shinichi quickly scans the stranger from head to toe. Hobby musician and artist with remarkable talent and an unfortunate penchant for alcohol and stray cats despite being allergic to both. Horrible posture and an early stoop. A real four o'clock shadow on his chin along with real small injuries he must have inflicted on himself while shaving with an old razor. Bohemian, authentic, harmless! Just a normal hobby musician who is playing "Charade" because he likes the tune...

"Generally, I like justice. But justice is one thing," Carrara remarks, throwing the street musician fifty cents, which the receiver acknowledges with an impersonal smile. "Another thing is humanity. Are you sure that you don't have any personal interest in investigating this case?"

Shinichi casts him a quizzical look.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it's not fair play to continue a case in order to arrest the live-in lover of your ex. Since your motivation is wrong, your jealousy is going to cloud your judgment."

"I didn't say that I suspect Seiya, did I?" Shinichi has given up on setting Carrara straight about the three of them, as the stubborn commissario has a habit of ignoring all his assertions.

"You don't need to say it aloud." Carrara rolls his eyes. "We both know that, if it was really murder, it could only have been him. You're sure that it was murder although you can't explain how he did it. Still, you should keep in mind that he is innocent until proven guilty!"

"I'm always keeping that in mind," Shinichi coolly retorts. "But you'll never prove anything if you give up investigating at this point!"

"Of course not! But I'm also sure I will never find enough conclusive evidence to make an arrest if it was a poison Andrea can't detect," Carrara muses, "unless someone can get their hands on the poison the culprit used on Haruka Tenoh. And that's not going to happen because _you_ won't give me a sample of the capsules both you and Signora Miyano are so addicted to."

"They're painkillers." Shinichi kicks at a small plastic bag the wind has blown towards his foot. "They can't kill anyone."

"Are you sure?" Carrara shoots him a disapproving sidelong glance. "What are they called? And what about giving me a sample of them to check whether an overdose could be deadly? Come to think of it, _your_ fingerprints are the only ones we found in Signora Tenoh's dressing room apart from her own."

"It's a family recipe, and I can assure you that they don't contain any trace of morphine. I didn't take many of them with me to Venice," Shinichi claims, inwardly cursing Ai's undetectable drugs, which have started the vicious circle of lies he cannot escape from. "And I need the ones I have to survive my migraine attacks since they're much more helpful than the ones I can get in the drugstores here in Venice. They also don't have any harmful side effects. But if you want, I can send you a sample of them after returning to Tokyo."

"I'm sure you can," Carrara dryly remarks. "But will they really be the same as the ones you're using now? I'd love to talk to Signora Miyano about them just to see her reaction. But I doubt it will lead to anything substantial unless I can get the permission to inspect Signor Kou's apartment, which I won't. If I'm careless, Gallo is going to take over the case and we can kiss all the evidence goodbye." Carrara casually lights a cigarette and offers Shinichi one, which Shinichi declines. "You see, once we police start investigating, we begin to rake up things that we had better left buried, things that don't even have anything to do with the case, and then get stuck in the middle because of random bureaucratic or social problems. I'm positive your headache medicine and your addiction or substance abuse don't have anything to do with this case. I'm sure you didn't even know Haruka Tenoh personally before tonight. But I'll have to follow the trail wherever it leads me if I continue investigating. From personal experience, I know when to give up a lost case. As you grow older, you'll have to learn to give up lost cases to focus on the ones you can solve as well. Time is limited. As much as it hurts, just let go!"

"Aren't you personally interested in continuing this case, just out of curiosity?" Shinichi innocently asks, joining the game Carrara has started. "I know you're being pressured by your superior to close it. But if you let me assist you, I'm sure I can present you with a satisfying solution. You don't need to give me any credits for it. Especially not since you'd get into trouble with your superior."

"Thanks for the generous offer to boost my reputation," Carrara smirks. "But unless we can find a believable explanation of how she died within the next week, the case is closed!"

Despite his words, Carrara has just given him enough time to investigate, Shinichi acknowledges. The commissario has hinted more than once that he would like Shinichi to solve the case, as he cannot openly investigate it without compromising his position. In return, Shinichi knows Carrara is not going to mention APAH to his superior. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, he might as well have said. I don't have the freedom of a private investigator while you don't have legal access to the clues. Let's join forces and solve the case together!

"May I have a look at the fingerprints?"

"Not officially," Carrara admits. "But since I'd like to know what you think of them, I can show you the files during lunch."

"When it comes to our lunch, I'll have to pass," Shinichi refuses after a glance at one of his mobile phones. Ran has sent him a message telling him they're going to have lunch with Sonoko and Kyogoku. And since he has been away for the whole night, she expects him to keep his promise of returning before breakfast, especially since Kyogoku is going to fetch them afterwards from the hotel. "I already have a date I must keep unless I want Ran to use her karate on me. Can we meet up in the afternoon after I've had tea with Seiya and… Miyano? I'll give you a call after I'm done." Her real name still sounds odd to Shinichi's ears.

"Deal. But I didn't expect your tiny fiancée to know karate!" Carrara exclaims in admiration.

Giving up on explaining to Carrara that Ran is not engaged (or at least not engaged to him), Shinichi tells the commissario that the "tiny" woman has a well-deserved black belt and is now teaching karate while training for the All Japan Karatedo Championship.

"It must be tough for you to be with a woman like her," Carrara comments with sympathy. "Just one small lie and you'll pay for it with broken limbs."

Letting his eyes roam the Piazzo di San Marco, which is already swarming with people and doves, Shinichi doesn't answer, for Carrara's harmless remark has revived a memory he would prefer to put out of his mind.

x.

* * *

 

**You can't be…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

_You can't be serious, you hopeless mystery freak! Didn't you hear what the woman said? Tourists die here every year because they all underestimate the storm. Running through the woods in this weather is already moronic enough. Driving out in a motorboat despite a storm warning is suicide! Why do you absolutely have to meet your client in the middle of the sea?_

What did he say in answer to Ran's outburst? After years of incessant working—cases, APAH, and the hope that Ai could have survived were the only things which kept him sane enough to deal with the daily grind after Hattori's corpse was found—Shinichi has forgotten most of the details. Even so, he can still remember clearly the fury in Ran's voice. It seemed peculiar to him back then, as he was familiar with her despair, her anger, and her sadness but not the uncontrollable wrath she only displayed when she had to deal with a vicious assailant targeting Edogawa Conan.

After checking the time on Ran's mobile phone again—consciously tracing the contours of each number in his mind to assure himself that this was reality and not only a product of an APAH-induced haze—Shinichi had sprinted off without a word, crossing the village and the woods to return to the motorboat. He had to help Hattori and Ai get out of the water before they drowned, froze to death, or were attacked by sharks—which was a sickening mental image but the most probable scenario considering Ai's injury. With hindsight, Shinichi should have known Ran better than to expect her to stay behind. But the fear that Hattori and Ai could already have died a horrible death occupied his mind so much that he didn't take notice of either Ran or the elderly (and probably insomniac) woman who had stuck her head out of her window to yell at him not to enter the woods, as the radio had issued a storm warning.

Shinichi can only vaguely remember the wind tearing at his hair and his clothes, hurling small twigs and pebbles at him as he dashed back to the Werewolf Cliff under the full moon. It started to rain somewhere on his way from the precipice to the beach, turning the precarious mountain trail into a slippery trap where a wrong step could bestow on him the same fate as Vodka. The clouds were gathering around the moon like a close-fitting black hood instead of obscuring it, a curious, surreal image Shinichi distractedly registered while mentally working out the new course of his rescue mission.

Finding Hattori and Ai in the middle of the sea was impossible unless Shinichi knew where the current would lead them, which in turn required that he correctly guess the time Hattori and Ai—giving up on the hope that Shinichi would return before the explosion—left the ship. Once he had pinpointed the time, Shinichi would calculate the location from which they started out, which would enable him to narrow down the places he had to hunt through for the wooden boxes where he expected Hattori and Ai to find temporary shelter. They had life vests, flashlights, flare guns, water, canned food, ropes, and even a few weapons on the ship. With all the equipment, Shinichi trusted Hattori to handle the situation well until he could rescue them.

When Shinichi arrived at the small cavity under the cliff where he had hidden the motorboat, he found himself flung on the wet sand by a pair of small but strong hands, taking him by surprise, as he hadn't noticed his follower in his anxiety. The moon was now completely shrouded by heavy rain clouds. And Ran, almost unrecognizable in the darkness with her long hair and her scarf flapping around her face, held him back by his wrist in a firm grip when he rose, her feet rooted in the ground in what looked like a karate pose when he attempted to pull away.

For the first time in years, her wrath was directed at him personally, which he acutely felt even before she uttered a word. After screaming at him for not valuing his life, she demanded an explanation for his "reckless and brainless" actions, repeatedly stressing that, this time, she wouldn't let him satisfy her with only a few crumbs of a justification.

Time, however, was scarce. And Shinichi, too, was irritated beyond description. His body was still hurting as if he had just been hit by a truck. Despite believing that anyone's evil deeds ought to be forgiven after their death and that revenge only perpetuated violence, Shinichi wouldn't mind watching Vodka tumble down the cliff for a second time.

He had an extremely important appointment with a very cautious witness who preferred to stay anonymous, so he really couldn't take her with him even if he wanted to, Shinichi told her, all the while trying to fight the panic rising within him. Why didn't she just go to the nearby log cabin, which was empty at the moment, and wait for him there?

_So you knew the man in the cabin,_ she burst out, her vice-like grip tightening. _You knew how nervous I was but you'd still lie to me! What else have you been lying about? Where have you been hiding? What does this isle have to do with it? You've let me wait for too long because of this stupid never-ending case of yours! I'm sick of all your mysteries and the way you always put us on standby to solve your cases! I'm sick of spending my life worrying about you! I'm not going to wait for you for another year as if I had nothing else to do in my life! You're going to tell me the truth now!_

The following morning, when he looked out of the log cabin and watched the sun rising at an incredibly slow speed, painting a perfect double rainbow on the colourful sky, from which the last dark spots were slowly fading, Shinichi absently wondered what would have happened if he had told Ran about Hattori and Ai and the Organization's files. Would they both have drowned because she would have insisted that he should take her with him and the motorboat would have foundered on the rocks during the storm? Most likely. Or would the four of them be sitting together now, warming up at the antiquated fireplace, which, by the look of it, hadn't been used for years...

The subsequent search for Hattori and Ai didn't present Shinichi with any information for a whole week although Akai Shuichi and Jodie Starling, Hattori's and Shinichi's parents, Hakuba and Kuroba and their acquaintances, and even a few sergeants from the Tokyo Metropolitan Department like the Takagi couple voluntarily joined the operation on the second day. Satellite images, which Shinichi would have considered obtaining (legally or illegally) in his desperation if he had considered them helpful, were useless due to the overcast sky at the time of their disappearances. _Humans don't resemble fish for good reasons_ , the fishers of the isle grumbled. _Better not build up your hopes. A young man and a ten-year-old girl, you said? One hour in the middle of the sea in winter is enough to kill an experienced fisher!_

Since that night, Shinichi has caught Ran's scrutinizing gaze on him more than once whenever she tried to allude to their past relationship. Every time he decides to tell her the truth about what happened, however, a surge of regret will overcome him, choking him until his post-antidote migraine returns. As always, he will take his capsules and wait until he has regained his balance. But by that time, his urge to talk about it will already be gone.

Heiji was away solving a new case, Hattori's parents had told Toyama and Ran in order to spare them the agonizing wait. The unsuspecting girls had returned to Osaka, where the two couples had agreed to meet up at Hattori's place on Christmas Eve after Hattori and Shinichi's supposed case in Kyoto (another lie Shinichi had had to keep up to buy time to go to Pandora's Box). Heiji probably didn't answer his best friend's messages for days because the battery of his phone was empty and he had forgotten to take his charger lead with him.

After Hattori's corpse was discovered, his death was depicted as an unfortunate accident by his own father: The overeager kid, impetuous and careless as always, had slipped off a cliff and hit his head on the rocks. Death had been ugly but instantaneous.

This wasn't too far from the truth, as Hattori's body, which hadn't yet decomposed after seven days thanks to the cold weather, had been bruised so badly by the rocks near the beach where it had been washed ashore that Hattori's parents refused to let Toyama see it in that condition. Shinichi, however, requested that he inspected it, and was forced to acknowledge that it was unmistakably Hattori's corpse, albeit without Toyama's lucky charm around his neck, which must have slipped off after he lost consciousness and drowned. All the detectives present (Shinichi, Hattori's father, and Toyama's father) arrived at the conclusion that Hattori must have been washed against the rocks while trying to swim during the storm so that he lost consciousness, drowned, and was carried around by the waves for days before ending up on the northwest shore.

Apparently, Hattori (absorbed in the Organization's files?) had misjudged the time Ai and he needed to get off the ship and therefore hadn't even had enough time to put on a life vest. The only consolation Shinichi could offer Toyama Kazuha in earnest was that Hattori didn't have to suffer for long.

Toyama's reaction was similar to Kaioh Michiru's after learning about Tenoh's death—with the difference that Toyama didn't float away on her dancer's feet afterwards but ultimately broke down and ended up spending Christmas in hospital. She also raged for months and resented Hattori's parents for taking away her chance of finding closure by seeing Hattori's corpse.

If Shinichi told Ran the truth about Hattori's death now, she would be crushed by an irrational sense of guilt and misunderstand the reason why he decided to end their relationship after that night. She would believe that he is blaming Hattori's death on her whereas the truth isn't quite as simple…

_Listen, I had a nightmare last night. We were at Tropical Land again, and you ran off again, telling me I should wait for you until you returned. You didn't return because you were dead! I can't let you go now. If I did, you wouldn't live to come back._

She had been delaying Shinichi on the beach for so long that he completely lost his patience at her ridiculous superstition, a weakness she shared with Hattori, who had tried to force his lucky charm on Shinichi again before they all set out to Pandora's Box.

_I dreamed that ya're shot by Vodka, that th' little nee-san drowned, and that I was th' only one who survived, but came back ta late 'cause I was attacked by Vodka on my way. Since I missed our movie date 'n she had ta go alone, Kazuha was so angry she knocked me out with her Aikido 'n accidentally broke my ribs. Ya see, I'm only taking measures ta make sure all these things won't ever happen…_

_That's reassuring, considering your dreams and nightmares never come true!_

_Touché. But sometimes, parts of them do…_

He was in a hurry, Shinichi exclaimed, exasperated. It was a matter of the utmost urgency, nothing he could delay!

_If you don't let go of me now, I won't come back even if I survive!_

Ran didn't respond, numbed by the unanticipated statement. And Shinichi stood motionless in the realization that he meant exactly what he had just said—and that acknowledging the sheer possibility of not returning to her, of not continuing their stagnating long-distance relationship he had impulsively committed himself to, was an immense relief to him.

Curiously enough, the sad little waltz he heard at Shiratori-sensei's wedding party during the charade suddenly began to play in his ears. And there was the image of Ai standing in front of the red velvet curtain with the white envelope in her hand, tapping her finger on the pendant to the slow rhythm.

Ai wore her cage-shaped pendant under her jacket, her cardigan, _and_ her shirt at Pandora's Box, a detail Shinichi's fastidious mind had to absorb and analyze even though it probably didn't mean anything. She used to wear it beneath her jacket on other days. But tonight, she carefully hid it beneath three layers of clothes, and he only saw it when he helped her treat the wound Vodka had given her…

_Look, I'm extremely sorry,_ he started, trying to apologize to Ran for the words he heartlessly and unthinkingly said, when a voice in his mind protested: _What are you doing? Time is ticking away and you're already late. Every second counts!_ Hence he freed himself from Ran's grab and pushed the motorboat towards the water as fast as he could. But he didn't get far.

Knocked out by seven (or eight?) successive karate punches and strikes of which he could only evade three... Before he was shrunk, Shinichi was always fast enough to foresee Ran's moves. But she had greatly improved with training and outdone him in speed as the years passed. In addition, the rain came down in torrents and the night was so black he couldn't even see the expression on her face. At least the darkness prevented Ran from noticing Vodka's corpse in the distance before it was swept out into the sea.

Every situation, no matter how dire, had two sides, Shinichi rationalized, trying to pull himself together as he combed the sea the following day. Hattori, supremely cocky as he was, must have enjoyed the chance to take on a heroic struggle and show off his unsurpassed surviving skills. It was impossible for the great Meitantei of the West to die so easily.

Contrary to his fear for Hattori's life, the thought of Ai dying only paralyzed Shinichi instead of motivating him to work harder. Ai's presence had become an essential part of his life, a luxury he had taken for granted like his Sherlock Holmes books or the Professor's gadgets, or regular food on the table. She had become indispensable to him even though she didn't trigger any romantic feelings. Her child's body had greatly alleviated their close platonic cross-gender relationship by reducing a possible physical attraction to zero—the amount an adult feels towards pretty children of the opposite sex. And since Shinichi only encountered Ai in her grown-up form a few times when either of them was wounded or in a hurry, the amount of his attraction towards her was almost nil.

Finally, Shinichi discovered that romance, frail and high-maintenance, wasn't his cup of tea. If he had learned anything from his relationship with Ran, it was the truth that love wasn't able to bridge time and distance. Given time, childhood sweethearts, who had once been inseparable, would grow apart and move on. She had outgrown the insecure girl who would weep over his continual absence just as he had forgotten how to regard her as a love interest after years of being pampered like a little brother.

Ran and he never talked about his invented client afterwards, as she stopped probing into his affairs with the same intensity and he evaded the topic after his return. It didn't work out between them, they informed their friends and parents, who were all saddened but not at all surprised when Ran accepted the invitation of a Kansai karate master to work as an instructor at his dojo and went to Osaka alone. Mystery freaks and lone wolves like him weren't made for long-lasting relationships with anyone was the only cutting remark Shinichi got from Ran in retaliation for his awkward conduct. And it seems that she has successfully resigned herself to their separation several karate dan and hundreds of beaten opponents later.

In retrospect, Shinichi knows that Ran only used her karate on him to save him that night. The storm, which blew up after she dragged him into the cabin, defoliated most of the trees in the woods and caused widespread damage all over the Kansai region. It would have been a miracle if he had faced that storm and survived. In his darkest moments, however, Shinichi often wished Ran had let him drive out in the knowledge that he would have died.

x.

The mystery of Tenoh Haruka's death—Shinichi realizes as the Danieli's elegant pink facade, white turrets, and pointed arches come into view—is, morbid but true, the best thing which has happened to him in the past three years. Notwithstanding his confusion and disappointment at the messy reunion with Ai and the excruciating wait for the tiny fragments of the past he has yet to piece together, Shinichi can feel for the first time in years that he is alive. This is the first case since Pandora's Box which has been able to resuscitate the declining detective in him.

A water taxi passes them at full speed, its radio blaring a snippet of "Charade"—not the original film music with vocals but an instrumental transcription.

"Have you heard that?" Shinichi turns to Carrara in astonishment. "The same song from two different sources within a few minutes. In two different versions… What an extraordinary coincidence!"

"Probably an advertising campaign," Carrara waves a dismissive hand, unimpressed by the curious coincidence. "They play the same songs for days when there is a musical at La Fenice or a movie in the cinemas they really want to promote. I bet we're going to hear the songs from _The Phantom of the Opera_ everywhere, too, from now on."

But the street musician has been playing "Charade" as well, and _Charade_ is a famous old movie, not a theatrical production or a new movie franchise they would promote in such a fashion, Shinichi thinks, recalling Kaioh Michiru's enigmatic expression when she told Carrara and him that Tenoh and she had wanted to watch _Charade_ together. Just like three, almost four years ago, "Charade" has turned into a portent of death. For once again, a woman has been waiting in vain in front of the cinema for a loved one who never made it to the date.

x.


	19. Part Three: The two-bedroom suite...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**The two-bedroom suite…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

The two-bedroom suite 'with a view' where Shinichi and Ran are presently staying is a "Lagoon View Suite" in the palatial Danieli—one of the most lavish and unquestioningly also one of the most expensive five-star hotels in Venice. Kisaki Eri's client, who has given her the Venice trip and the tickets for Tenoh's opera as a more personal way to thank her for helping him finalize his problematic divorce, must be an exceptionally well-heeled person. One week in such a suite would have cost Ran a year's worth of wages if she had paid it out of her own pocket. And the fact that Ran's mother accepted the absurdly expensive present is a clear indication that whoever gave it to her is so affluent that such an enormous sum doesn't really matter to them.

Ran has already brought her daily workout and the subsequent shower behind her when Shinichi enters their suite, judging from her slightly damp hair, fresh face, and the pink yoga mattress (which still has a few fresh indentations from Ran's knees, elbows, feet, and arms) on the black ebony stained parquet flooring. Ordering him into the bathroom, she demonstratively hides the pile of notepaper on the desk she is sitting at beneath her palms.

"You'll get the result of my online investigation during breakfast," she sternly says. "But we won't have breakfast before you've brushed your teeth, shaved, and taken a shower!"

"Agreed, Ran-nee-chan," Shinichi smirks and hurriedly disappears into the bathroom in the hope that she hasn't noticed the blunder. Ever since he saw Ai again, the past seems to merge with the present as though it were trying to make up for the lost time during which he tried to lock it away.

A continental breakfast is already waiting for the two of them in the opulent sitting room when Shinichi emerges from the bathroom in the Danieli's bathrobe with a towel around his neck. Noticing Ran's nostalgic gaze on him before she nervously turns her attention to the hot chocolate, which she is now pouring into both cups without asking him whether he would like any, Shinichi wonders once again whether it was a good idea to share the same suite with her. The mystery man who gave her the sapphire ring can't be very happy about this trip, which she should have taken with him instead of her childhood friend and erstwhile love. His fears also proved to be well-founded, as within only three days, Ran and Shinichi's awkward post-romance friendship has already morphed into a marriage-like arrangement in which he organizes their sightseeing and entertainments while she takes care of their stomachs and social commitments—as evidenced by the neatly packed suitcases Shinichi can spot through the door of her bedroom.

"Let's eat before the eggs get cold," Ran suggests in an attempt to delay the bad news Shinichi has already anticipated since their arrival in Venice, whose gist is that they're going to abandon their splendid "Lagoon View Suite" in the Danieli for a guest room in Sonoko's villa soon. The only reason why Shinichi has been spared from Sonoko's upbraiding and jeremiads for so long (the spoiled princess will always find something to complain about in that pesky little voice of hers!) is Sonoko and Kyogoku's recent trip to Campania, where the future art historian planned to study Roman frescoes. Now that Sonoko is back in Venice (she returned last night), Shinichi's pleasant holiday with Ran, enlivened by the encounter with Ai and the mystery surrounding Tenoh Haruka's death, is threatened to be wrecked by Sonoko's tireless efforts to take reprisals against The Jerk, who has hurt her BFF.

"Have you already solved the case?" Ran inquires, swiftly applying butter on their croissants with the proficiency of a woman who has spent years doing it for a whole kindergarten group while she has only done it for a few times in her whole life.

Not yet, Shinichi admits. Until now, no poison has been detected. If things continue like this, the case will be closed and Tenoh's death declared a natural one.

"That's great news!" Ran beams. "We've already been worried about Seiya-sama since the internet says that the police suspect him." With a dark sidelong glance, she slyly adds: "So that's why you wanted to get rid of me last night. Why didn't you simply tell me that he was one of the suspects?"

He would have had to ask her to keep it secret from Sonoko, Shinichi admits (relieved that Ran still hasn't seen a photo of Seiya's "secretary", who—as Ran would have discovered—resembles Ai-chan so much that they could have been clones of the same person), and he didn't want her to suffer the agony of divided loyalties.

"Fine. I'm not good at lying, anyway—unlike detectives who have so much to hide that they always have to carry different mobile phones in their pockets," Ran agrees. The taunt doesn't have a sharp edge to it unlike her past accusations. They have been separated for so long that not only her infatuation with him but also her dislike of his quirks have faded with time.

The internet is full of garbled versions of the La Fenice tragedy, as expected, Ran informs Shinichi. But all the versions agree with each other that Seiya-sama is being suspected by the police, as Seiya-sama and Tenoh-sama had fallen out with each other before Tenoh-sama's death because Tenoh-sama was continually hitting on Shiho-san, Seiya-sama's official secretary and secret girlfriend.

Sonoko was totally devastated, Ran tells him. "She cried on the phone for hours, saying that Seiya-sama can't ruin himself for a cold woman who doesn't really care about him at all. But that's nothing compared to the reactions of his other fans… I read that a few are already undergoing emergency treatment in hospital because they tried to cut their wrists or swallowed an overdose of sleeping pills last night."

As ridiculous as the situation sounds, it is also worrisome. Ai has been made a scapegoat and become a target for both Tenoh Haruka's cult following and Seiya Kou's crazy fans overnight. If Seiya doesn't clear up the misunderstanding that Ai is his girlfriend as soon as possible, she will be "dissected" by the journalists and the fans, to quote Hino.

Apparently, it's already happening online, as Ran tells Shinichi between the first croissant and the second. No one knows anything about Seiya Kou's mysterious secretary apart from the fact that she came to Venice with Seiya-sama four years ago. Alessandra DiGiorgio, the usher Seiya gave an autograph, wrote on her blog that "the sultry strawberry blonde" is also living with him although the two of them have repeatedly denied being in a romantic relationship. DiGiorgio also claimed that the artistic director asserted that Seiya Kou is running after his secretary like a lovesick teenager, even kissing her in public while she always tries to fight him off. 'Haruka Tenoh', who was a flirt of Casanova's caliber, however, often successfully coaxed Seiya's secretary into having a cup of coffee with 'him' or going out for a walk with him during Seiya's rehearsals. Rumour has it that the pair have also been seen with each other in front of prestigious hotels like the Gritti.

"It wasn't the first time that Seiya-sama and Tenoh-sama had been fighting over the same woman." Ran blushes. The same happened years ago when the paparazzi took photos of Tenoh-sama, Seiya-sama, and Kaioh-sama in Kaioh Michiru's dressing room when Tenoh-sama tried to punch Seiya-sama for hooking up with his girlfriend. And soon afterwards there was another incidence when the two rivals fought over the same woman again—this time a classmate of Seiya-sama, a sixteen-year-old girl who already had a boyfriend overseas. There was a persistent rumour that they were entangled in a tempestuous threesome behind her boyfriend's back, and the girl was harassed for months, even physically attacked on her way to school, until Seiya-sama stopped seeing her and got involved in other scandals with other women.

"Do you know the girl's name?" Shinichi asks, pitying Chiba Mamoru's wife, who—just like Ai—had fallen victim of Seiya's and Tenoh's popularity and fame.

"Tsukino Usagi," says Ran, showing him the photo of a wide-eyed blonde with overlong hair done up in two buns, which Ran has saved to her phone. "Her photo is all over the internet now that the reporters are dredging up the story again, comparing Tsukino-san to Miyano Shiho-san, who is said to be more beautiful but also less cute."

It won't be long until someone finds out that Tsukino Usagi is now married to Chiba Mamoru, who was also at La Fenice the night of Tenoh's death, Shinichi thinks, studying the "moon rabbit's" small, delicate face with a snub nose and a pair of straight-lashed blue eyes on the screen. She exudes the same air of vulnerability combined with stubborn resilience as a certain scientist, Shinichi realizes. Apparently, Seiya's taste in women (even if the actor's relationship with Ai is most probably only a publicity stunt, he seemed genuinely attracted to her) hasn't changed over the years.

"She looks like Aino Minako's twin, only with less sex appeal and more innocence, Sonoko said," Ran recalls. "How Seiya-sama could have fallen in love with an inconspicuous girl like that without falling in love with Aino-san as well is beyond her comprehension."

x.

Apart from the usual idle gossip and rumours, Seiya's fans know surprisingly little about their star. Three Lights have been discovered by their present agent Igarashi Shizuka's father Igarashi Kenji, who left them in his daughter's care after he died. Like her late father, Igarashi Shizuka seems to believe in the tactic of arousing public interest by leaving her protégés' pasts shrouded in mystery.

"It wasn't much, wasn't it?" Ran sheepishly asks. "There were so many links. I didn't have time to click on all of them."

"But you've collected a lot of useful information in such a short time," Shinichi consoles her. "You're a great companion for a detective! If I were Holmes, I'd want you to be my Watson."

"If you were Holmes? You're always so full of yourself, you wannabe Sherlock!" Ran rolls her eyes and boxes at his arm before she proceeds to put the remains of their breakfast back on the trays. Nevertheless, her beatific smile and her glowing cheeks convey that she is not at all averse to the flattering comparison, which she knows to be the highest compliment Shinichi would ever give a friend. Handing him the notes she has taken during her research on Seiya, she pours them each a glass of orange juice and adds in passing, "Speak of Holmes: Have you seen Three Lights' first screen appearances in the _Detective Boy Holmes_ live-action series? Seiya-sama played two different roles, and no one would have noticed if he hadn't been credited for both. The critics say it's amazing how he could change his voice and his whole demeanour, switching from a likable supporting character to a villain without difficulty."

"I haven't watched it." Indifferent to modern Sherlock Holmes adaptations, Shinichi listlessly yawns and makes for his bedroom. In his opinion, the canon is always superior to all these film adaptations and remakes in which they change the characters beyond recognition. Still, Seiya does intrigue him a bit after he has had a taste of the singer's acting skills. With a dash of genuine interest, Shinichi asks Ran whether she knows which roles Seiya has played so convincingly.

"I've forgotten the names since I didn't think they'd be important. But one role was that of Irene's husband. I only know it because it was mentioned in the headlines of the online articles." Even though she was in a long-distance relationship with a dedicated Sherlock Holmes fan for almost three years, Ran's knowledge of the Sherlock Holmes universe is limited to Holmes, Watson, and their respective love interests Irene Adler and Mary Morstan. "Wait a minute! It's already on the tip of my tongue!" She holds her head with both hands, ruffling her flawlessly combed hair.

"Godfrey Norton!" Shinichi tells her, feeling his anger rising for a completely irrational reason.

"Ah, Godfrey Norton. 'Has our young Godfrey Norton finally found his Irene?' or 'Will everyone's favourite heartthrob Seiya Kou tie the knot with his secretary in the same way as the dashing barrister in 'A Scandal in Bohemia' with 'the woman'?" Ran's voice has automatically taken on the sensational, melodramatic tone of the articles she had to read—a tone which, even when it comes from Ran, grates on Shinichi's ears.

"Enough!" he snaps, exasperated. "I got it already! So he played Godfrey Norton, Irene Adler's husband. And what was his other role? Professor Moriarty?"

In truth, it was only a joke to distract her from repeating to him all the silly headlines in which Seiya has been likened to Godfrey Norton, a fact which stings Shinichi to the quick for the simple reason that he has always imagined that—if it hadn't been for the "dark, handsome and dashing" barrister who married Irene Adler before Sherlock Holmes could even exchange a word with her under his real identity, Holmes would have had a very good chance of leading a perfectly fulfilled life with "the woman"—his elusive ideal of a female—by his side. Shinichi's (admittedly romantic) reading of "A Scandal in Bohemia" implies that Holmes only stayed a bachelor for life because the only woman who fascinated him—the only woman he had ever accepted as his equal—had been in a happy relationship with another man right from the start. To find out that Seiya has played the role of Irene's husband doesn't make the former idol more sympathetic to Shinichi, who notices for the first time that "Ai" does indeed sound like an acronym of "Irene", supporting the claim that the fictitious couple have found their equivalent in real life.

"Moriarty!" Ran exclaims, much to Shinichi's stupefied amazement. "The director of the live-action series said she would never dare to cast Seiya-sama as a villain again because he would hypnotize himself into any role and live according to it until the shooting ends. When he was Young Moriarty on the set, the whole crew was scared witless by his evil aura."

"Are you absolutely sure that it was Moriarty?" Taken aback by Ran's remark, Shinichi storms out of the bedroom, carrying the pair of jeans, sweater, socks, and underwear he has just taken out of the wardrobe in his arms.

"I'm absolutely sure!" Ran blinks uncomprehendingly at him, raising her phone with Seiya's photo on the screen towards him although she knows he can't discern much from the distance. "Why? Is it really that important?"

"No, I was only curious," Shinichi, who has regained his composure in an instant, waves her worries away. The idea that the "M" on the Sherlock Holmes painting and on the note stands for "Moriarty" and that—looking at it from this angle—Seiya's joke that "M" means "Me" was actually the truth, sounds too absurd to be true. Nevertheless, the theory is also too logical to be ignored—especially if one takes into account the fact that the note to "the Sherlock of the 21st century" possesses a mocking undertone. Unnerved, Shinichi concedes to himself that he has let his actions be dictated by his emotions instead of his intellect, and that it was wrong and arrogant to dismiss all of Seiya's flippant statements as jokes and lies instead of considering that one could also take them at face value.

"By the way…" Ran hesitantly begins, fidgeting with the belt of her blue corduroy dress. After she told Sonoko that they would love to watch the _Phantom of the Opera_ on Sunday and go to the cinema with Kyogoku and Sonoko on Monday night, Sonoko begged her to stay in Venice at her villa for the rest of the week. The old friends haven't seen each other for so long. And as breathtaking as the Danieli is, it's also much too luxurious for Ran to feel comfortable in it. Although she would love to stay with Shinichi for another week in Venice (six days are too short a time to make the most of a Venetian trip), they can't possibly afford to pay this suite after the planned checkout on Tuesday.

"But if you're too busy to stay…" she mournfully adds.

"No, of course I'll stay with you in Venice," Shinichi assures her. "Let's keep this suite until Monday, though, in case the she-devil decides to throw me out of her villa after enduring the sight of my face for a few hours."

Grinning from ear to ear on the way back to his bedroom (while ignoring Ran's indignant remonstrations), Shinichi flings the bathrobe and the towel on the floor and speedily gets dressed. He can't help but revel in the knowledge that he will stay in Venice much longer than expected—and that each day on this isle means a thread of the mystery untangled, a part of the truth about Hattori's death uncovered, and a further step towards his goal of luring Ai back to Beika where he and she belong.

x.


	20. Part Three: Kyogoku came alone...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Kyogoku came alone…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x. 

 

Kyogoku came alone to bring Shinichi and Ran to Sonoko's villa—a restored fort on a small island in the Venetian lagoon—as the young heiress was too busy making herself presentable after a sleepless night agonizing about her favourite idol's fate to fetch her best friend and The Jerk on her own. Surrounded by a luxuriant garden of about six thousand square metres, the round fort with the sheltered private harbour, where Shinichi is now standing, is evocative of a fairytale princess' dwelling—an impression strengthened by the appearance of the pink-clad lady who is now tripping down the lane towards them. From the distance, she looks ethereal, a slight pixie in a pink coat, pink boots, and white tights. But only a few seconds later, she shoots Shinichi a hateful glare from hard turquoise eyes, whereupon he amends his opinion—having discovered all of a sudden that, in close-up, she bears a striking resemblance to the goblins in the illustrated books his mother once read to him.

I've missed you so much, you can't imagine how much, Sonoko sobs, sinking into Ran's outstretched arms. I see you've brought Shinichi-Stupid-Numbskull—but for your sake, I'd voluntarily put up with him for life even though I don't suffer fools gladly.

Stupid Numbskull! Despite the redundant adjective, Shinichi is impressed. Obviously, Sonoko has expanded her vocabulary during her art history studies. Before she went to Venice, the titles he received through the receiver whenever he called Ran on her mobile phone and Sonoko was on the landline (unlike him, Ran has no problem talking with two or even three people on different phones at the same time) were invariably Jerk, Ass, Moron, Freak, or Idiot, in any possible permutation.

To Shinichi's relief, Ran and he don't have to share a bedroom. Checking every nook and cranny of the place (he has become slightly paranoid since Pandora's Box), Shinichi discovers that Sonoko's housekeeper, whom Sonoko has given a few days off, is an honest but scatterbrained brunette, that recently a white tomcat has been strolling about the house, that the window to his bedroom can be easily opened from the outside with his tools, and that Sonoko and Kyogoku like to make out on the sofa while watching TV…

Shinichi's powers of observation and deduction are a double-edged sword, invading other people's privacy and putting the burden of knowledge on him even when it concerns things he would rather not know. Sometimes, for example in this case, he makes a conscious effort to hold back and distract himself with another matter so as not to pry into other people's private affairs. Investigating a murder case, however, Shinichi never refrains from using all his resources to track the culprit down.

In the narrow bedroom Sonoko has assigned him, Shinichi starts his laptop—the latest model the Professor has specifically made for him—and connects the mobile phone he has lent Kino Makoto to it. Kino has made two calls, one to a landline number, which Shinichi immediately jots down into his notebook, as Kino didn't reach the person she had tried to call ("Meioh Setsuna's" answering machine picked up after five rings), and another call to Mizuno Ami, who apparently belongs to Chiba Usagi's "closely knitted circle of friends," as Shinichi can make out during their conversation:

"Moshi-moshi, this is Mizuno Ami," Mizuno answers the phone in a small, mellifluous voice.

"Ami-chan, it's me!" In Japanese—and set side by side with Mizuno Ami's soft voice—Kino Makoto's voice sounds stentorian.

"Mako-chan, you're calling early! Did you get yourself a new number?" Despite her words, Mizuno doesn't sound like she has just woken up. On the contrary, she sounds fresh and casual as if she is accustomed to getting up at dawn.

"No, I'm calling from someone else's phone. Kudo Shinichi, the detective. He came to Haruka-san's opera. You remember him? The one Haruka-san used to talk about. The one who brought down the Organization!"

Shinichi can discern a sharp intake of breath before Mizuno inquires in an apprehensive tone, "What happened?"

"Haruka-san…" Kino trails off before she sighs and starts anew. "She died during the last interval of the opera in her dressing room. Mamoru-san said it was a natural death. But she died after drinking the cup of water I'd given her! And now I'm one of the suspects."

"Why are you using Kudo-san's phone to call me?" Mizuno asks, ignoring the subject of Tenoh's death completely as if it were a matter of no importance. Her voice is now clear and calm, almost cold in combination with her perfect enunciation and the lack of redundant aberration in the formal pitch patterns of her words.

"I've drained the battery of my phone after talking with Mina-chan—you know how we always forget the time once we've got started. Seiya-kun was here as well. I think the police suspect him because he and Haruka-san, uh, you know their usual problems with each other! I didn't know how to break the news to Usagi, so I called you first—"

"Have you called anyone before you called me?" Mizuno cuts her short.

"No, no one. I tried to call Setsuna-san because I thought she ought to tell Michiru-san and Hotaru-chan about Haruka-san's… but I couldn't reach her. She is probably still in bed. And I think Usagi would rather hear about it from Mamoru-san. Maybe I can ask him to call Setsuna-san, too? I always had the impression she liked him most. I haven't called Mina-chan yet. Unless Rei-chan has already told her in the meantime, she still doesn't know anything. She has ordered a bunch of roses to congratulate Haruka-san on her first opera, but now—"

"It's already late in Venice. You should let her sleep so she won't forget her lyrics during the opening night of all nights. You know how bad her memory is. I'm going to inform the others. Please give Kudo-san his phone back now. You don't want him to pay horrendous charges for your long-distance calls!"

"But of course I'm going to pay him back," Kino Makoto protests. "Listen, Ami-chan!" Her voice takes on a note of urgency. "Something is terribly wrong about this! When I gave Haruka-san the cup of water, I—"

"Let's continue our talk when you're home," Mizuno stops her in a sharp voice. "Don't say anything which can wrongly implicate yourself or others. Let's talk this over first! Maybe you'll need a good lawyer." Then, more gently, she adds, "And please don't drink too much. You know what it does to your savings account." Without waiting for Kino's response, she unceremoniously ends the call.

A brilliant woman, Shinichi thinks in admiration. Smart, level-headed, and extremely cautious. If the assumption weren't so questionable, he would say she has immediately guessed that he has recorded Kino's calls. In any case, Tenoh's friends—or rather Chiba Usagi's friends?—seem to have more secrets than one would expect. Adding "Mizuno Ami", "Meioh Setsuna", and "Hotaru-chan" to his list of names relating to the Tenoh case (if "Hotaru-chan" is Professor Tomoe's daughter, as Shinichi believes, Meioh Setsuna must be the friend who is taking care of the girl when Tenoh and Kaioh are in Venice), Shinichi registers that he has just expanded his list by two more M's.

x.

Using Sonoko's wireless connection, whose WPA Kyogoku has given him, Shinichi opens his email client to fetch the mails from his three different accounts. Apart from the usual spam and fan mails of a few police officers who have taken a liking to him, Shinichi and his two alter egos have also received mails from their friends: Ayumi has written Conan and Ai each a long mail, the Professor has sent Shinichi and Ai each a short mail, and Mitsuhiko has sent Ai alone three mails—one long mail every day.

Despite Shinichi's many subtle attempts to discourage Mitsuhiko from pursuing his hopeless crush, the saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder seems to apply to the boy's situation. No girl has managed to catch Mitsuhiko's fancy after Ai "left for the US." Instead of giving her up, the boy has set himself the goal of wooing her via mail and phone until he is old enough to study abroad (according to Ayumi-chan, whom Mitsuhiko has confided in). And while Shinichi firmly believes that he should put an end to this unfortunate infatuation before it escalates into something heartbreaking and disastrous, it is hard for him to shatter the boy's high hopes in a more brutal and decisive manner. After all, Mitsuhiko's infatuation with Ai is also Mitsuhiko's greatest motivation in life. Now that the boy has worked himself up to the top of his school and become fluent in English just for his goal of joining Ai in a few years, Shinichi dreads the day on which he has to admit to Mitsuhiko that he has been answering his mails all along.

Accustomed to reading the mails according to the date they arrived, Shinichi starts with the Professor's mails, which the Professor must have written directly after "Ai" ended their call.

In his mail to Ai, her surrogate father asks her for her latest address, telling her he would like to see her in person for once. In his mail to Shinichi, the Professor tries to sound him out about Ai, whom Shinichi was supposed to have met in front of La Fenice during an interval: "What impression did you have of Ai-kun when you two met? She sounded sad and tired on the phone, and she told me she had caught a cold. I can't remember her sounding happy and well ever since she left. You should really try to convince her to come home!"

Now that the scandal surrounding Seiya and his secretary is scattered all over the internet, it won't be long until the Professor finds out that "Ai" has been lying to him. How to tell Ai that he has been borrowing her identity all these years is an issue Shinichi would rather not think about. To distract himself from the thoughts of how she might react when she finds out that she has been impersonated, Shinichi focuses his attention on the other mails from Ayumi and Mitsuhiko.

Apart from the usual school anecdotes (Ayumi's mail), thinly veiled love declarations (Mitsuhiko's mails), and the description of a case involving a dog that has suddenly stopped barking, Ayumi's and Mitsuhiko's mails to Ai can be condensed into one single sentence: Ai has promised to give them a call every Saturday afternoon. And since she hasn't called them yet, they're writing her to remind her of her promise.

Ayumi's mail to Conan contains the same school anecdotes and the description of the Case of the Silent Dog (plus explicit love declarations!) and the old reproach he can recite by heart: "You're a terrible friend! Since you moved away, you seldom—almost never!—call me."

Clicking the mails away, Shinichi disconnects the mobile phone from his laptop and is about to log himself out of his administrator account (he doesn't trust either Sonoko or Ran whenever they are together!) when the name of the sender of one mail he has almost dismissed as spam catches his attention: _Naiad_.

A naiad is either a "submerged aquatic plant," the "aquatic larva of a dragonfly, mayfly, or stonefly," or a "nymph inhabiting a river, spring, or waterfall," as the online Oxford English Dictionary tells him. In all probability, the anonymous mail with the subject "Important Information" is from the "beauty of water" Mizuno Ami, who must have found his mail address on the Sleeping Kogoro's website.

"Dear Sherlock Holmes of the twenty-first century," the mail begins. "Please have a look at the attachment below, which contains important information on the suspects of your recent case.

Best regards,

M."

The attachment is a zipped file named "Silent_waters_run_deep," which Shinichi eagerly opens, realizing too late that the phrase—especially in connection to the Naiades, whom he has been googling in a separate window and whose deeds he is reading about—has a malicious connotation.

What happens to his screen afterwards is something he has already seen once, on the screen of the Professor's computer when Ai inserted a disk of the Organization. Mizuno Ami has just sent him the Night Baron virus in retaliation for his recording of Kino's calls. And the fact which disturbs Shinichi most is not the reality that she has just rendered his laptop useless and deleted all his files (he didn't keep any important files on the hard drive, anyway), but the realization that she didn't even try to remain anonymous—challenging him by sending him the Black Organization's virus from an email address that clearly alludes to the meaning of her name.

x.

* * *

 

**While Ran and Sonoko are…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

While Ran and Sonoko are hard at work in the dining room and in the kitchen, exchanging Seiya-sama-related news of the last hours and warming up the lunch Sonoko's housekeeper prepared before she left this morning, Shinichi and Kyogoku are taking a stroll in the garden to talk about Tenoh Haruka in private. To Shinichi's surprise, Kyogoku shows a personal interest in Tenoh and the mystery of her sudden death, a curious fact which can't be blamed on Tenoh's celebrity status alone.

"Sonoko is studying at Kaioh Michiru-san's academy," Kyogoku explains, illuminating the reason for Sonoko's sudden interest in art history with only one piece of information. "Seiya-san and also Tenoh-san always went there to practise in their private music rooms." In contrast to Tenoh-san, whose piano playing could be admired by everyone passing by "his" window between breakfast and lunch, Seiya-san has rented a windowless soundproof room for fear that he can't experiment with his voice and play drums at the speed he wants without aggravating the neighbourhood.

Sonoko has often tried to waylay him there but he has always miraculously escaped, Kyogoku wryly adds. "I've given up on talking her out of her idol obsessions. Despite his reputation, Seiya-san is rather shy. It's better for her to obsess over him than over someone else who would take advantage of her crush."

Finally, Sonoko's choice of location for her art history studies makes sense. It has always seemed highly suspect to Shinichi that she would spend over ten million euro on a property in Venice—a tiny city for a socialite accustomed to live in a metropolis—to study something she has never shown any interest in. To all appearances, Sonoko has moved to Venice to stalk her favourite idol and to be alone with her boyfriend, who is socially awkward and still feels uncomfortable in the presence of her overpowering mother, during the few months in which he is not training for a karate championship.

"Have you ever met Tenoh in person?" Shinichi asks. Kyogoku seems a more reliable witness than Sonoko, whose flights of fancy and poor judgment would invariably interfere with her otherwise acute senses.

A regretful look steals into Kyogoku's eyes.

"I wish I had. I suppose you've heard of Maeda Satoru? He was Japan's fastest karate champion ever, famous for his phenomenal speed. But Maeda-san told me that Tenoh Haruka was actually the fastest fighter he had ever seen. A prodigy with extremely efficient movements. As fast as the wind, he claimed. That was also her nickname on the track."

"The Wind?" Considering Tenoh's name and the fact that she had never been beaten on the track, the nickname is most fitting.

"I think so. Maeda-san told me there was a running joke in racing circles that 'Tenoh Haruka' means 'Turbulent Hurricane'."

"Are you still in touch with Maeda?" Shinichi hasn't heard Ran mention her karate idol again after the Night Baron Murder Case. To protect herself, she tends to blot out memories of tragedies and traumatizing experiences to the degree of forgetting that they have ever happened.

"I send him a mail on his birthday and on New Year. But I haven't visited him in years." He couldn't bear the sorry sight of the broken man who was once the idol of all karate disciples, Kyogoku admits. Maeda-san hasn't been able to pick up the pieces after his fiancée was convicted of murder. At least he stopped drinking last year although Kyogoku doubts that Maeda-san will ever take up karate again. "I think he still blames himself for what happened to her."

It takes Shinichi a beat to recall that Maeda Satoru's fiancée Sayama Akiko, the culprit of the Night Baron case, has received the death penalty—a harsh but statutory and inevitable sentence, as it was a premeditated and brutal murder which also generated public outrage and which could have set the pattern for other vigilantes who prefer taking the law into their own hands to following the rules set by society. It was one of the cases Shinichi avoids to reminisce upon, as he had to jail a likable culprit for murdering an unscrupulous victim, separating a happy couple and ruining Maeda's life in the process.

"Did Maeda tell you how he met Tenoh? Was he a fan?"

"No, he actually didn't know anything about the motocross scene, not before he met him. He told me Tenoh-san was cornered by two guys with baseball bats. Before Maeda-san could intervene, Tenoh-san had already knocked them out on his own."

"Are you sure it was two men, each with a baseball bat?" Shinichi has heard enough erroneous witness accounts in his life to know that, in most cases, the recollections had been altered by wishful thinking.

"That's what Maeda-san said. He was extremely impressed. Tenoh-san showed him the difference between sport and fighting, he said. He claimed that what we—Ran-san, Maeda-san, me—are doing is a form of martial art and that, against Tenoh-san, we wouldn't stand a chance."

Even though Kyogoku's voice doesn't quiver, his indignation is palpable. Kyogoku would have liked to ask Tenoh Haruka for a match, Shinichi realizes, as Maeda's remark has hurt the unbeaten karate champion. Kyogoku needed to prove to Maeda and himself that karate wasn't only a sport. But now that Tenoh is dead, she has evaded Kyogoku's grasp and, in consequence, will forever remain the superior fighter in Maeda's estimation.

x.

They have fish soup and parpacci di pesce—thin slices of salmon dressed with olive oil and herbs—for lunch, followed by tiramisu and stracciatella ice cream. While Kyogoku and Shinichi are enjoying their meals in silence, Ran and Sonoko ceaselessly exchange opinions on the La Fenice case and Seiya's secretary as if Ran were a detective and Sonoko her informant. Although Shinichi usually ignores their celebrity gossip, he has trouble to feign disinterest this time. Next to him, Kyogoku is following the conversation with rapt attention as well, hanging on their every word while pretending to focus on his dessert.

Tenoh-sama was famous for being "extremely orderly" and "extremely reclusive", Sonoko tells Ran. It was common knowledge that he wouldn't allow anyone to enter his dressing room. He didn't even let Kaioh-sama visit him in his dressing room and always went to the backstage café with her whenever she came, which was seldom. Even though they still went out with each other from time to time and were also very affectionate towards each other in public, people have begun to suspect that it was only for show and that, in reality, the perfect couple had grown apart ever since Seiya-sama and his secretary came to Venice.

"It's all Miyano-san's fault," Sonoko concludes, cutting herself another giant slice of tiramisu in her frustration. "If she wasn't really in love with Tenoh-sama, she shouldn't have encouraged his advances. Kaioh-sama is a real angel. I wouldn't have let them go behind my back like that. I'd have murdered either Tenoh-sama or both of them to set an example for all cheating boyfriends and coquettish secretaries and—" She abruptly stops as if she has just realized that this is one of the possible versions of what might have transpired last night at La Fenice.

"But Miyano-san hasn't done anything wrong," Ran generously interjects. "I'm curious about her, though. She seems very mysterious. Have you ever seen her?"

"Not yet, she is only in the academy when I have classes, and my lecturers are so strict they'd throw me out of their courses if I missed one lesson. But I've applied for the intermediate ballet class. If I'm accepted, I'll be taught by her in person."

"Miyano is teaching ballet at Kaioh's academy?" Shinichi stares at Sonoko over the half-eaten tiramisu and the exquisite hand-painted china tea set.

"She also worked as Tenoh-sama's secretary and took care of—well, still takes care of—the paperwork of the ballet department," Sonoko shoots Shinichi a smug grin. "A chief cook and bottle washer, so to speak. I bet she has made herself indispensable so that she could keep both Tenoh-sama and Seiya-sama without getting fired by Kaioh-sama."

From the sketchy information Shinichi has found in Pandora's Box, Professor Tomoe's academy offered the students an all-round education. Ballet must have been part of the obligatory physical education, which explains why Ai—despite being a full-time scientist—has a remarkably good posture, which has even improved after she went to Venice. Nevertheless, she didn't mention that she worked as Tenoh Haruka's secretary—a job which must be the cloak for something else. Hiding in Venice in Seiya Kou's apartment, working with Tenoh Haruka, whose mother was one of the seven crows and whose father an FBI agent, teaching ballet out of all subjects… Shinichi would have thought chemistry, maths, or even English to be more appropriate. But in Kaioh's art academy, ballet was probably the only subject she could teach. Managing the intermediate ballet classes within such a short time without having a professional background is actually quite impressive, Shinichi concedes. For a chemist, who already worked in her profession at sixteen, she was surely fast at adapting to all the changes life threw at her.

"And what do you wear during the ballet classes?" Shinichi asks, as he has difficulty picturing Ai in ballet clothes. "Not pink tights and a tutu, I hope!"

No, just tights and camisoles of any colour, preferably white, pink, or black—Sonoko glowers at him. Then, more menacingly, she asks, "Why, what do you have against tutus?"

"I find them really pretty on professional ballerinas," Ran hastens to answer in his stead. "They show the legs beautifully."

"They only look good on girls who are very thin and have very long legs," Shinichi can't refrain from saying. "Everyone else looks ridiculous in them."

"Do you want to say I'm too fat?" Sonoko explodes, enraged by his imaginary insult.

"No," Shinichi explains himself, adding truthfully that she is much too thin. He has always preferred the natural, curvaceous type—not the flat-chested, narrow-hipped women made of skin and bones that look like they're on the brink of starvation.

Luckily, his phone—the personal one—rings, giving him an excuse to flee from Sonoko's outrage at his double faux-pas. On the other end of the line, Jodie-san's voice is cheery but tired, which she blames on the previous sleepless night.

"Looks like we're interested in the same person again," she purrs. "I wish I could tell you some confidential, top-secret information, but all I have are useless nuggets. I suspect our British colleagues or rivals are withholding important information from us. I thought you have an ally who can help. Aren't you still in contact with the half-British detective who assisted you last time?"

The FBI reacted to the news as Shinichi expected—or rather one particular person did: Mr James Black must have assigned Jodie-san (and probably Akai-san as well) to the case as soon as he learned about his niece's sudden death at La Fenice. What Shinichi didn't anticipate, however, was to learn that MI6 is withholding information on Tenoh.

"I don't think he can help us in that aspect. Why do you think they're trying to hide information on her? Did she work for your British rivals?"

"No, of course not. That's the odd thing. We have information that she had been seen with random British colleagues but James was sure she didn't work for anyone. She was always a rebel even when she was a kid. Hence her adolescence was hell on earth for Jean. At fourteen, she was sent to London to Jean's sister Mireille, where she stayed for a year before she ran away. In Japan, she lived in Osaka for a few months before she went to Tokyo and her love affair with racing started. Met her girlfriend at Shirabaka Highschool when they were fifteen. The couple was inseparable despite many tiffs. Afterwards Jean tried to talk her into going back to Paris with him a few times, but she'd rather go to Infinity and stay there until Nero burned it down."

"Nero?"

"Professor Tomoe cracked up, thought that he was Nero and Infinity was Rome. That's the official version. He is now in his private hospital and plays mind games with his adoring nurse. We don't know anything else since _someone_ decided to let the ship explode and forgot to back up the files!" Realizing that she is hurting him more than she intended to, Jodie-san sighs. "Sorry, C.G., but I can't get over it. After all we went through with each other, you didn't trust Shuu and me…"

"C.G.?" Shinichi asks even though he knows the answer.

"Cool Guy," she chuckles. "Professor Tomoe likes to use acronyms, as my informant—a former Infinity prodigy—told me. He gave everyone nicknames and sometimes used their initials to confuse his students."

"He called her 'S.B.'," Shinichi tells Jodie-san. "Do you know what it means?"

"Skater Boy? Super-gorgeous Beauty? Sexy Butch? No, I don't know what it means. I've already asked my informant, who told me she was 'S.B.' but didn't know what it meant either. Professor Tomoe was hard to read even when he was halfway sane. Why don't you simply ask the girlfriend? Were you struck dumb by her unearthly beauty? If she is only half as pretty as she looks on photos, half the population in Venice must be in love with her."

"I'm going to ask her the next time I see her. The last time she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She was understandably affected by Tenoh's death. I almost feared she'd commit suicide over it."

"So Haruka is really dead?" Jodie-san's voice has lost all its cheeriness.

"We have a real corpse, which has already undergone an autopsy. I checked it myself. It was Tenoh, and it was dead."

"What a pity! We've hoped it was someone else who had undergone plastic surgery."

"No such luck," Shinichi retorts in irritation, annoyed by her indifference towards the corpse if it had been "someone else" when he suddenly recalls Seiya's and Ai's indifferent attitude.

"Why didn't you believe she really died?"

Haruka, despite her seriousness, sometimes suffered from mischievous fits, according to James, Jodie-san explains. Her brother Akira, for example, never existed. She was an only child and didn't have any friends when she was small. Maybe that's why she invented a playmate for herself, talking about "Akira" all the time. Later at Infinity, she must have regressed since she brought him up again.

"And who was the corpse at Infinity?" Shinichi asks in alarm.

"Was there a corpse?" Jodie-san sounds genuinely surprised. "Or was it only a rumour and there was no corpse at Infinity at all?"

x.

After sending Seiya a message that he is going to visit them in two hours, Shinichi paces the corridor of Sonoko's three-bedroom villa in a state of agitation. He has an idea of how the culprit could poison Tenoh and clean the dressing room but can't think of a motive. He also needs more time and information to figure out the details, for example what poison the culprit used, as he was sure it wasn't APAH, at least not in its unaltered state. Above all, he needs Ai's cooperation. Considering the circumstances and the direction the investigation takes, however, he doubts that it will be easy for him to get her help without deceiving her.

The girls want to go shopping this afternoon, Kyogoku informs Shinichi as he joins him at the floor-to-ceiling window, which looks out to a wooden balcony and the patio at the three blood-red maples. It was impossible for Sonoko to get the tickets for the opening night of _The Phantom of the Opera_ , and Kyogoku could talk her out of her dangerous plan to fight for the tickets at the box office. However, they have managed to get tickets for tomorrow night.

Unlike Ran, Shinichi doesn't make the mistake to argue with Kyogoku (or Sonoko, for that matter) about paying them back for the tickets, as that would have set the scene for another exhausting discussion. He is going to get them all movie tickets for Monday or Tuesday instead. Moreover, Shinichi has deduced that Kyogoku, who looks eager to get back to his regular training, it not at all interested in talking about entertainments at the moment.

"We haven't made any plans for tonight yet, but the girls said they would like to stay here after dinner to watch DVDs—to marathon Seiya-san's live actions and music videos, I think. I'll pass since I've watched all of them for at least twenty times by now. I told them I thought you wouldn't be very interested in them either." Apparently, Kyogoku has been ordered to babysit Shinichi so that Shinichi wouldn't disturb Sonoko and Ran's fangirl session while Kyogoku would rather be alone to get back in shape. Did Shinichi have a plan for tonight, Kyogoku asks. If his presence is not needed after dinner, Kyogoku would like to work out and train a bit, as he can feel his condition deteriorate after too much food and sightseeing.

"I have work to do as well," Shinichi puts Kyogoku's conscience to rest. "The case is not closed yet and I'd like to ask commissario Carrara about the development of the investigation." Shinichi doesn't dare to tell Kyogoku about his permission to investigate for fear of Sonoko's big mouth. "Can you give me Maeda's number? I'd like to ask him a few questions about Tenoh."

x.

Maeda Satoru's voice has changed drastically since the last time Shinichi heard it. Once sonorous and laden with energy, it has become nasal and croaky—the strained, dry voice of a man whose physical condition can no longer keep up with his habit of speaking too loudly whenever he can't see the person he is talking with.

"It's hard to believe that Tenoh-san has been murdered," Maeda muses. Unlike the Professor, he has already learned about Tenoh's death on the radio. "But it did look like she had made herself a lot of enemies. Many men begrudged her the spectacular success. She was also very frank and had strong opinions. Her rivals on the track felt intimidated and humiliated by her."

"We still don't know whether she has been murdered. I heard from Kyogoku Makoto that you once witnessed her during a fight?" It surprises Shinichi that Maeda knows that Tenoh was a woman while Kyogoku is still in the dark. Evidently, Maeda has intentionally kept the knowledge to himself in order to protect what he believes to be a personal secret while Tenoh's real sex is known among her friends and colleagues.

"It wasn't a real fight. They attacked her—or at least they tried to. She took both of them down in one single strike. I've never seen anyone react so fast. I doubt I'm ever going to see it again. It was the reason why she was accepted into Infinity, she said. The mad professor who ran it was searching for prodigies with fast reactions. He called the students he personally picked for Infinity his 'guinea-pig prodigies'."

Pandora's Box did mention the "guinea-pig prodigies" without detailing the criteria for admission to this exclusive circle of the academy. Casting his mind back to Ai's exasperated expression when Seiya claimed that he wouldn't have passed the IQ tests and Seiya's prompt reaction when Shinichi tried to knock over Ai's water glass, Shinichi infers that there were no IQ tests at all and that Seiya would have met the requirements for Infinity if he had wanted to go there.

He didn't know what Professor Tomoe's experiments were about, Maeda claims, as Tenoh never told him and he wasn't interested in Infinity. The two men who attacked her with baseball bats were supporters of her strongest rival on the track, a Yamada what's his face (Maeda has a poor memory for names) who always won second place. It wasn't the first time that Tenoh had been targeted, which was why her mistrust and resentment against men in general and popular men in particular was understandable.

"They were in a van and already threatened her on the streets while she was riding her usual red bike. If she had been alone, she would simply have raced away. But there was a girl on the passenger's seat, a very attractive one, from what I could see. Tenoh-san had to stop at a park because of her. If she had driven faster, the girl would have fallen off. I pulled over to help her before I saw that she was more than skilled enough to take care of herself."

"Was the girl Kaioh-san?" Shinichi asks. He can't picture Kaioh Michiru as "the girl who would have fallen off the bike" since she surely would have kept her balance unless she was hampered by a skirt or dress which forced her to ride the bike side-saddle.

"No, it wasn't her girlfriend. Just a platonic friend, from the look of things. I couldn't see much of her since she left immediately after Tenoh-san took down her attackers. She was either in a hurry or shocked by what she had witnessed. When Tenoh-san was attacked, she only stood there and stared, paralyzed by fear… She looked like a real princess. Sheltered women like her don't know how to react to physical violence. You can't really blame her."

"Do you remember how she looked?" Shinichi asks, wondering whether the girl he described was Tsukino Usagi.

"I was so impressed by Tenoh-san's skills that I didn't pay attention to her," Maeda admits. "And I usually liked to look at beautiful girls. She was neither tall nor short and had fair hair, I think. But I can be wrong since I didn't see much through her helmet and she carried a large umbrella she used when she walked away. She had very fluid movements. Tenoh-san called her 'koneko-chan', which I found fitting since she did remind me of a cat."

Whoever poisoned Tenoh deserves to be jailed for life, Maeda concludes. Tenoh Haruka wasn't only a prodigious talent on many fields but also a great person. He can only hope that it was a natural death, which was so gentle and fast that it left her bereaved girlfriend and friends devastated but which was for her a chance to go out with a bang.

The last time they met, she complained that she felt exhausted and lacked inspiration for her compositions. She had been around for too long, she said. The critics had begun to get tired of her, trying to find faults with her after showering her with praises. The eternal practising for her concerts also got on her nerves. Sometimes she even suffered from bouts of depression, which affected her capacity for learning.

"It's the usual burnout syndrome many prodigies face when they grow up," Maeda soberly observes, "when the things that had felt easy and natural suddenly grow difficult as their consciousness takes over and all its limitations kick in. I told her she was just overworked, as anybody else would be in her situation."

In answer to Shinichi's question when he noticed that Tenoh was a woman, Maeda laughs.

"Almost immediately, actually, although her face and her attitude did fool me at first. But after a few minutes, I discovered 'female' arm movements. A slight turn of the elbow men usually don't have to make between two gestures. I've spent half of my life studying movements to improve my karate. She was extremely efficient. Hence the few movements which would have been redundant if she hadn't possessed female curves betrayed her."

After thanking Maeda for his help, Shinichi has already moved the receiver away from his ear to end the call when Maeda suddenly asks him why he is working for the Sleeping Kogoro.

"A detective of your caliber shouldn't squander his talents on a law-abiding fool like him," Maeda remarks with bitterness. "Have you read about the Night Baron Murder Case he solved in Izu? I bet you've heard of it. Akiko's plan would have worked out well if it hadn't been for my idiotic meddling and Mori."

Maeda's interference turned him into a suspect. But since he had an alibi at the time of the murder, the case would never have been solved if the Sleeping Kogoro hadn't decided to blurt out his deductions during one of his famous trances.

"If only he had held back and considered the consequences, Akiko wouldn't be on the death row now. She'll be executed just because she can't feign remorse. We all know Ebara deserved his death after causing so many tragedies with the Night Baron virus!"

"Do you really believe anyone deserves to be killed like that? Impaled on a statue?" Shinichi coolly asks.

"It's like asking whether anyone deserves capital punishment," returns Maeda.

"It's not a law I've made, and personally, I don't support this form of punishment. But as a detective, it's my job not to let murderers escape. Mori Kogoro didn't have a choice. If he hadn't solved the case, you'd have had to live with the rumour that you've murdered Ebara."

"And what would have happened to me? Nothing. I'd be living with Akiko instead of trying to get through the day, fearing every morning when I wake up that they're going to inform me of her execution… Ebara received a better end than the aftermath I got! The Sleeping Kogoro ruined our lives. And for what? To boost his ego and to keep his reputation of solving any case in his sleep no matter how tricky."

"I don't think it was about his reputation! Like all good detectives, Mori Kogoro has a deeply ingrained sense of justice."

"No, he has the greatest respect for the law," Maeda corrects him. "Akiko has a deeply ingrained sense of justice. Otherwise she wouldn't have committed the murder in the first place. Tenoh-san was someone who understood it—the ridiculous limitations our society puts on us not to dispense justice but to maintain the status quo."

Sayama's sense of justice cost another's person his life, Shinichi reminds him. Life would be extremely difficult and unpleasant if everyone were free to do away with anybody they hated. Since no one can survive on their own and everyone has different beliefs which can't be discussed, people need rules and taboos to get along.

There are crimes one can forgive if one considers the circumstances. Taking another person's life, however—especially when it wasn't done in self-defense but out of revenge—is unforgivable.

"You self-righteous detectives and your big words! I wonder what you would do if you found out that the culprit you had been hunting down was the woman you love or someone close to her." Maeda gives a hoarse laugh. "Would you send her to the death row like you do with other people's fiancées? Or would you fake the evidences, bribe the judges, and get her the best attorney available?"

Shinichi still remembers a similar question Ran asked him once: What would he do if the culprit turns out to be a person he loves: his own parents, his best friend, or Agasa-hakase?

"I'd do the same for them as I'd do for any other criminal," he once again declares with conviction. "I wouldn't let anyone suffer alone with such a burden on their mind."

"You'd ruin your own girlfriend's life?"

"If you want to put it like that, yes. Anyone who commits a murder needs to face the consequences of their actions—defending themselves in front of the community whose basic rules they've broken."

"You've never been in love," Maeda contemplates, and quietly ends the call.

Stepping on the square balcony, upon which the rare November sun has bestowed a large portion of its golden light, Shinichi tries to make sense of the anger and anxiety Maeda's words have provoked in him. Knowing from experience that people like Maeda would always put their own sentiments over rational argument, Shinichi shouldn't have let himself get shaken up over a rude throwaway remark. Yet the assertion threw him like a calculated taunt would have stung an insecure kid afraid of legitimate criticism. Carrara's question of this morning also comes to mind, adding to his frustration. The commissario has accused Shinichi of pursuing the case for the wrong reasons while the truth is actually the exact opposite. Thinking back to the moment she took Seiya's hand and intertwined their fingers after wrecking her reputation to give him an alibi, Shinichi clings to the hope that Ai's infatuation with the singer is only a charade, for the very last thing he wants to do is to arrest the man she loves.

x.

 


	21. Part Three: After a horrible...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**After a horrible…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

After a horrible sleepless night on the creaky monster of a bed in his dingy pension, Saguru is really not in the mood to strike up a friendship with the suspect of a murder case. And yet the man he is having an animated conversation with is such a sympathetic, sophisticated, and intelligent human being that Saguru begins to feel as clingy as a lonely nerd who has just discovered that a nice classmate is pursuing the same weird hobbies as him. The sentiment is mutual, as they needed less than half an hour to proceed from the usual small talk to Tenoh's death at La Fenice to more personal topics…

Like peregrine falcons, for instance:

"I don't know much about peregrine falcons," his elegant breakfast companion—the man looks as if he was born to wear a black tuxedo!—humbly admits at 08:34:18 a.m., while they are both sipping their excellent black coffee and eating their scrambled eggs. "I only know that female peregrines are much larger than their male counterparts. Nevertheless, I've always admired peregrine falcons. I've read somewhere that the peregrine falcon is supposed to be the fastest animal on earth during its hunting dive…"

Having breakfast at the Gritti Palace with Chiba Mamoru (their table is ideally situated at the large window which looks out to Canal Grande) turns out to be a treat. The man seems to have studied everything fairly well, as he can jump from medicine to music to art to history to politics to sports with ease. He knows he had better focus on his future job, Chiba Mamoru confesses—but his wide range of interests would always interfere with his main goal of becoming a great surgeon. After losing his parents in a car crash and being saved by a young surgeon who gave him on-the-spot treatment before operating on him, six-year-old Mamoru-kun decided to dedicate his life to the profession of his saviour, whom he had never been able to thank because he was ironically killed in a car crash soon afterwards.

"I always had the feeling that he had sacrificed his life to save mine, so I had to live both my life and his life in his stead."

To Saguru's delight, Chiba Mamoru is surprisingly candid about the scandal surrounding his wife's past entanglement with Seiya Kou. Despite being bitter about the sleazy reporters who are dredging up the old story again to fill their gossip columns, Chiba seems to have made peace with the past. "Usako"—he utters the nickname with endearing gentleness—and he had already been dating when she was much too young for him, Chiba admitted. And while he tried to keep a safe distance and accepted a scholarship for Oxford for the sake of their future, Usako felt lonely and lost, misread his reticence, and was dazzled by Seiya Kou, who entered her life at such a difficult time.

Instead of being jealous, Chiba is "extremely thankful to Seiya-kun" for taking care of Usako the way he did: going out with her, keeping her company, and encouraging her in all her endeavours for months without asking for anything in return. The teen idol behaved like a real gentleman or even a knightly troubadour from the Middle Ages—not at all like the womanizing jerk the gutter press always depicted him in their fabricated news. Chiba also suspects that Seiya-kun's love for Usako was his way of coping with his foster sister's accident. Different people employ different mechanisms to deal with overwhelming grief. And Seiya-kun must have loved "Kakyuu-san" very much, judging from all the things he had done for her: He ran away from home when he was only fifteen, worked as an artist and magician in a small circus to become independent from his parents, and took her with him when he had earned enough to support them both. But almost immediately after his idol career reached its peak, she got into an accident and fell into a deep coma, in which she died a few months ago.

"I've never met her but I saw her on a photo once: an extremely beautiful redhead with overlong hair done up in buns just like Usako… But she also looked very frail and delicate, reminding one of these ancient Chinese princesses with tiny feet who would always carry a parasol to hide from the sun and who couldn't even take a bath on their own. Protective as Seiya-kun is, he must have been very concerned for her safety, as—"

They are interrupted by a pretty petite waitress with short blonde curls and green eyes, a rare type in Italy. She quietly refills their coffee, returns Saguru's admiring smile with a coy blush, and quickly checks out Chiba (who is proudly wearing his gold wedding ring, to her disappointment) before she retreats into the corner of the room.

"Everyone mixed up the dates and the order of things—but I put them into an order and investigated Kakyuu-san a bit… just out of curiosity," Chiba admits, sweetening his coffee with two spoons of sugar. "Ami-chan, a friend of Usako and me, is also the daughter of the owner of the private hospital where Kakyuu-san stayed until her death, so it was easy for me to find out all the details: Kakyuu-san got into the accident a few months after Seiya-kun met Usako and her friends, only a few days after he introduced her to them. Maybe his harmless attraction towards Usako turned into a full-blown infatuation after he was told that his foster sister would never wake up from her coma. Ami-chan said he had consulted ten specialists or even more before he gave up. I guessed he needed something to hold on to since his two brothers were both borderline bipolar. They'd have drowned in their depression if he hadn't managed to stay sane and cheer them up."

"Do you think he suffered from depression as well?" Saguru asks, thinking of Seiya Kou's ever-serene face on the photos and video clips he has seen on the internet. He hasn't noticed any sign of melancholy, neither in the singer's gestures nor in his perpetually amused expression. On the contrary, fine laughter lines adorn a pair of blue eyes which are more distant than his smiling lips would suggest. If Saguru has been struck by anything, that something was his fearlessness bordering on arrogance and his great zest for life.

"Did you know he broke down after a concert?" Chiba counters his question with another question. "I heard from Rei-chan that a severe injury hadn't been able to keep him in bed. In fact, he simply hid it and managed to deceive his own agent despite his fever. He even refused to take painkillers for fear that they would interfere with his performance. But after he was told that Kakyuu-san would never regain consciousness, he barely made it through the performance and fainted before the curtain call."

Love, even unrequited love, is sometimes born out of despair, Chiba concludes. A ray of hope that keeps one alive when life has become unbearable. But can such a love, no matter how obsessively strong and pure it is, win against a profound connection between two people who have repeatedly fallen in and out of love and who, against all odds, have resolved to stay with each other for life? Chiba has never felt seriously threatened by Seiya Kou for this reason despite Usako's obvious attraction towards the singer and the close friendship the two of them still cultivate after all these years. Chiba knew that a future with him would always be Usako's first priority, and nothing Seiya-kun did for her would ever change her mind.

After Chiba returned from Oxford and made up with his fiancée, Seiya Kou seemed to have fallen into a hole again, Chiba tells Saguru as a water taxi passes their window, blaring "Charade" so loudly that Saguru has to lean forward to understand Chiba's words. But one had to admire the resilient guy for pulling himself out of it as always. Although he quit the idol business afterwards, he seemed to have enjoyed his freedom and successfully turned his unrequited love into a source of inspiration—writing poems and songs and travelling through Europe before coming back to Japan to attend "Odango" and Chiba's wedding in time like a true friend of hers would do.

"I'm glad he finally has his own girlfriend, though, so he can stop pining after my wife," Chiba smirks. "His secretary! None of us believed it since he values his privacy too much to share his apartment with anyone. His siblings are an exception. I admit I didn't even expect him to move in with a girlfriend before marrying her—and he is really not the marrying type. You can't imagine how hard it was for me to keep a straight face in front of the commissario when I was interrogated. I didn't want to blurt it out so that the reporters can drag his name through the mud and harass Shiho-san like they harassed Usako back then. But apparently Haruka-san had managed to ruin it for him again. She simply couldn't stop anything she had started."

"What did she do?"

"Usako told me Haruka-san had sent their photos to all the famous magazines and to his agent. Just because she thought their hidden love affair is a farce she had to destroy so that they could leave the charade behind them. I can't blame Seiya-kun for not faking sadness when Haruka-san died. But seriously: Is that a motive for a murder? The police can't blame her death on him and ruin his career just because he is angry at her attitude."

"The word is she had been provoking him for a long time," Saguru prompts.

"That's true… Rei-chan said Haruka-san had it in for him ever since she could remember—trying to insult him whenever they met. I don't know anything about that because she was always civil towards him whenever I was present. But the way Haruka-san tipped off the reporters the last time irritated even me. And my temper is not half as quick as Seiya-kun's! Usako told me he once knocked out two paparazzi who tried to get a shot of Usako and him before he destroyed their cameras. Despite his outward patience and cheeriness, Seiya-kun is very impulsive when he is provoked. The police suspect he has poisoned Haruka-san. But even if the medical examiner found a poison during the autopsy—which I doubt—it would only convince me that Seiya-kun is innocent. Poison isn't his style. If he had wanted to kill Haruka-san, he would have done it in a fight."

"The way she tipped off the reporters 'the last time'? So Tenoh Haruka was responsible for the scandal surrounding your wife?" Saguru can only suppress the urge to pull out his notebook with difficulty.

"Well…" Chiba's intense eyes narrow as his deep voice grows increasingly strained. Saguru's sharp eyes can also discern that his large, long-fingered hands tremble slightly when he hesitantly takes them from the table as if he is trying to hide his white knuckles from Saguru. "I suppose Haruka-san only wanted 'the best' for her 'koneko-chan' and me. She was a fiercely loyal friend. But you know, she was also the type that always did the worst things for the best of reasons…"

Brilliant as she was, Haruka-san was also exasperatingly, autistically clueless when it came to other people's feelings, Chiba explains. "She believed that separating Usako from the source of danger—Seiya-kun, in her opinion—would help us save our declining relationship. Hence she put her scheme into action with fanatical single-mindedness and cruelty: She created a scandal so that Seiya-kun would stop seeing Usako for her own sake. Of course Haruka-san also voluntarily ruined her own reputation for us, noble and selfless as she always was. Since she was successful in the end, as always, it was impossible to reason with her. She never understood that what she did was wrong and that she hurt Usako so deeply that Usako couldn't talk about the memory for years. If she weren't the most generous and forgiving person I know, Usako wouldn't have forgiven Haruka-san and invited her to our wedding."

As if he felt sorry for having ranted about his deceased friend, Chiba graciously adds, "That was petty of me! Maybe I wasn't fair towards Haruka-san because I was jealous. She was extremely impressive and charming, so charming that all the women near her would question their sexuality sooner or later. Usako was completely besotted with her before her stunt spoiled their friendship. I admit I feared her because she wasn't only a tease but also seized a chance whenever she saw one. She was desperately unhappy and misused the admiration of the naive girls to feed her ego. Seiya-kun is completely harmless in comparison. When I read about the scandal in the newspaper clips a good friend sent me, I was much more jealous of Haruka-san than of Seiya-kun."

It was an admirable attempt to defuse the tension and to distract Saguru from noticing the obvious. However—sleep-deprived or not—Hakuba Saguru is not easily deceived after he has imbibed two cups of black coffee. Chiba Mamoru has never forgiven Tenoh Haruka for the scandal, Saguru notes, realizing that, for in instant, this suave, polite, and affable man had a dark glint of resentment in his eyes which Saguru has already seen in the eyes of all the culprits he has known.

x.

* * *

 

**To his relief…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

To his relief, Saguru knows that Chiba Mamoru is unlikely to be the culprit considering all the details of the case Saguru has learned from his informants until now. Chiba doesn't even belong to the narrow circle of suspects due to his perfect alibi—having been seen by all the ushers (first in front of the main entrance, then in front of the concert hall) while he was voice-chatting with his wife from the beginning of the second interval until half past eight when he returned to his seat. Among Tenoh Haruka's acquaintances at La Fenice, Chiba Mamoru was the only one who wasn't in the backstage area at the time of Tenoh's death. And if all the facts which Saguru has learned from his informants and Chiba himself are true, no one else could have killed Tenoh Haruka either.

First, Chiba insists that Haruka-san didn't show any signs of having been poisoned. Someone who died naturally in their sleep couldn't have passed away more peacefully. Second, he doubts that anyone could have sedated her. Her instincts were powerful and her reactions were freakishly fast, earning her several snazzy nicknames like "The Wind", "Tornado-sama", and "Turbulent Hurricane". As far as Chiba can tell, she had never lost a fight. Usako has told Chiba that Haruka-san tried to punch Seiya-kun for flirting with her girlfriend once and that he luckily managed to catch her fist. But it's an open secret that Seiya-kun is a tactile prodigy as well (Professor Tomoe seemed to have collected them for unknown reasons), and that this one episode was most probably the only time in Haruka-san's life that an attack of hers had failed. Therefore, Chiba believes that forcefully feeding a poison to Haruka-san was absolutely impossible. If Seiya-kun—the only person who had a chance to fight her—had tried it, he wouldn't have been able to overwhelm her so easily. On the contrary, Chiba would have bet on Haruka-san winning in the case Seiya-kun had tried to attack her in her own dressing room and she had had to defend herself.

"I didn't know that Seiya Kou has studied at Infinity. Was he there for a brief time before he attended Juuban Highschool?"

"He hasn't studied there. Usako told me Professor Tomoe wanted him to be a 'guinea pig prodigy' but he declined. He said he didn't like their boring conservative school uniform."

"He has a certain sense of humour," Saguru observes. "Or did he mean it literally?" Seiya Kou did defiantly wear Three Light's black and midnight-blue suit at Juuban Highschool—a privilege he wouldn't have received at Infinity under Professor Tomoe's control.

"It's hard to guess when Seiya-kun is joking or when he is telling the truth," Chiba shrugs. "I think it's his way of keeping people at a distance. It's difficult to get to know him. I doubt that his own girlfriend knows who he really is."

Coming from a person who has also asserted that Seiya Kou would never poison an enemy, this statement refutes the previous claim so thoroughly that Saguru wonders whether Chiba is doing it intentionally or only contradicts himself because he is less rational than he looks. To be fair, few people in the world are as logical and consistent as Saguru and Kudo, who always stand out like well-defined, clear-cut figures among periodically changing, blurred shapes. In an insecure world, rational thinking and steadiness are much underrated, in Saguru's opinion.

Suspecting Rei-chan and Makoto-chan is absurd, as they both admired Haruka-san and had been supported by her many times in the past, Chiba claims as Saguru urges him to proceed with his speculations. Although she feigned indifference and pulled herself together in order to focus on her performance and on her musical debut in _The Phantom of the Opera_ , Rei-chan was very affected by Haruka-san's death, as Chiba, who knows her well enough to see through her tough facade, can tell. Furthermore, Haruka-san was so smart and attentive that she would surely have sensed a change in Rei-chan's or Makoto-chan's attitude if either of them had wanted her dead.

The portiere and Gentile respected and feared Haruka-san so much that they would jump whenever she raised her brow at them. And neither of them had a motive, as the scandal of Haruka-san's death has only caused them trouble. While Makoto-chan and Chiba were waiting for Rei-chan at Seiya-kun's motorboat last night, they witnessed how the portiere was criticized for reading romance novels on his shift and for letting his ex-girlfriend distract him. Nadia Gorowitz, who overheard the quarrel between Seiya-kun and Haruka-san yesterday evening, still visits her ex-boyfriend at work even after their breakup, as she is one of Seiya-kun's fanatical fans. Chiba almost spilled his champagne on her before the second act because she was blocking one of the two entrances to the hall and pelting her usher-friend with questions about Seiya-kun. Rei-chan also suspects that Gorowitz has only applied for a part-time job as an usher to stalk Seiya-kun at work.

"Gentile is a terribly meek artistic director. But he got the job through his many influential acquaintances and was successful enough to stay at La Fenice for so long because Seiya-kun came to Venice four years ago just when Gentile started out," Chiba tells Saguru. "Somehow Gentile has managed to convince the board of directors that he is the only person who can deal with Seiya-kun's temper and disorganized habits, which is a complete lie because Rei-chan told me that Seiya-kun has always been calm and reliable during the rehearsals. I also think Gentile has a crush on Shiho-san, so you should take anything he says about Seiya-kun with a pinch of salt."

"Does Gentile always wear gloves?"

"I heard from Minako-chan—another of Usako's friends, who is going to sing Meg Giri in _The Phantom of the Opera_ tonight—that he always does. He says he catches a bad case of influenza every season, so he needs to be as careful as possible in a theatre house where it's sheer impossible to evade the germs."

"You said he was afraid of Tenoh-san. I wonder why he dared to enter her dressing room at half-past eight when she didn't answer the door."

"I don't know, but I think he must have been standing in front of her door for a while before he dared to come in. I'd been waiting in my seat for an eternity before he showed up and asked me for help."

Michiru-san, Haruka-san's long-suffering life partner, would have been the prime suspect apart from Makoto-chan if she had been present last night, Chiba continues. But she had been painting at home and only came to La Fenice after Haruka-san died. And since Chiba knows that Michiru-san loved and accepted Haruka-san with all her faults, she would be the last person he suspects.

As Chiba has an excellent memory for facts, Saguru got an overview of the whole case in no time. Among the people who had been in the backstage area between a quarter and half past eight p.m. (the timespan between Gentile's last two attempts at asking Haruka-san to go onstage), only Seiya-kun, who passed Haruka-san's dressing room while Rei-chan was studying the scores and Makoto-chan was talking on the phone, had the chance to poison Haruka-san in secret. Anyone else who entered Haruka-san's dressing room would have been heard by Seiya-kun, who is very attentive and whose ears are as well-trained as any first-class musician's ears can be. Nevertheless, Chiba firmly believes in Seiya-kun's innocence. He is the type that fights open battles and can't harbour a grudge for long.

Saguru doesn't doubt that Seiya Kou could have heard anyone who entered Tenoh's dressing room. However, Saguru also doesn't believe for an instant that the singer would have informed on any of his acquaintances. Tenoh Haruka had already ruined one of his romantic relationships and was about to wreck the next. Even if he was innocent, Seiya Kou's sympathies were clearly on the side of the culprit and not on the side of the victim.

"My guess is that she suffered from an unknown disease," Chiba leans back in his chair and takes out his gold vintage pocket watch to compare the time on it with the time on the clock on the wall. "She had been complaining about her migraines for months, Rei-chan told me, and had even given up on coffee because her body could no longer tolerate the caffeine. Last night she wasn't in good shape either because she played a pianissimo passage much too loudly, drowning out Rei-chan's part. She probably asked Makoto-chan for a cup of water to swallow some painkillers. It was unfortunate that she didn't get the water herself so that Makoto-chan has become the prime suspect of the case."

"I've noticed these vintage watches are very much in vogue these days," Saguru casually remarks. "Does the artistic director have one as well?"

"I don't know," Chiba replies, eyeing Saguru with sudden mistrust. "He didn't interest me."

Fifteen minutes are too short a time to poison Tenoh Haruka, to clean the dressing room, and to scatter Tenoh's fingerprints randomly all over the place, Saguru calculates. However, it would have been possible if it had been a slightly longer timespan because Gentile's watch was slow or because Gentile dawdled on his way. Naturally, it would still take an unscrupulous culprit with extremely fast and efficient movements—someone who had planned or even practiced the whole procedure in advance and who didn't let the danger of being discovered at any time affect them. Even under these circumstances, however, it was almost impossible. The only logical explanation which comes to mind is the following scenario, as absurd as it sounds: The culprit was Miyano Shiho, who is supposed to have been sleeping in Seiya Kou's dressing room at the time of Tenoh's death. She could have left her room before Seiya Kou returned to the opera house, could have been visiting Tenoh Haruka and sitting in Tenoh's dressing room during Gentile's second visit so that she could poison the ex-racer immediately after Gentile left the backstage area…

The idea comes upon Saguru in a flash while he—multitasking with ease—is flirting with the petite emerald-eyed blonde, who keeps blushing at him whenever she passes their table. Like a film, a sped-up version of what could have transpired at La Fenice appears in front of his eyes. "I only need another fifteen minutes. Just let them wait!" Tenoh Haruka cried, taking an inconspicuous pill from the beautiful redhead, whom she—according to the press—had been trying to seduce for years, whereupon the artistic director in front of her door stalked away in frustration. Miyano Shiho, Seiya Kou's indispensable secretary, had just offered the pianist a painkiller against her persistent headaches, which she now swallowed without much thinking. It wasn't until her body heated up and the world around her began to spin that Tenoh realized that her charming companion, who was now nonchalantly flipping her hair, had given her something entirely different from the drug she craved. (During their few abrupt encounters, Saguru observed that Haibara Ai had the habit of flipping her hair whenever she felt superior to (or bored with) her surroundings.) The erstwhile scientist, who had provided Tenoh with strong painkillers for months, must suddenly have changed the formula…

At the moment, Saguru can't think of a motive except for the scandal which Tenoh-san was about to create—a motive which doesn't seem strong enough for a person like Miyano-san to commit a murder. However, he doesn't want to dismiss the possibility before he has followed this train of thought to the end.

After Tenoh's death, Miyano Shiho had fifteen minutes before the artistic director returned, which she put to use like a perfectly trained Black Organization member: eliminating the evidence that she had ever entered the dressing room, placing Tenoh's fingerprints on all the places where they were expected to be, exiting the room without leaving new fingerprints… She must have used a large handkerchief for that purpose, as gloves would have been too conspicuous if they had been found in her possession.

Afterwards, she hurried back to Seiya Kou's dressing room and pretended to sleep. But the singer, who heard her surreptitious steps, left the backstage café, where he had been chatting with Kino, and returned to his dressing room to meet her.

It would explain many details which seemed strange to Saguru when he read about the case, whose minutes Natalie sent him this morning. Seiya Kou must have walked past the backstage area and asked Luigi Gentile whether Gentile had seen his secretary anywhere since he couldn't find her, neither in the hall (where they agreed to meet) nor in his dressing room—a fact he wisely omitted during the interrogation.

It would also explain why the artistic director thought that Seiya Kou had returned through the main entrance near the bar while the portiere clearly stated that the singer had come back through the exit. More precisely, the portiere claimed that Seiya Kou must have returned through the main entrance during the second interval (as he didn't see him coming through the back entrance!) but had run out again and then returned through the back entrance at the end of the second interval (the portiere released the turnstile for him this time).

On the assumption that both the artistic director and the portiere were right, Seiya Kou might have come through the main entrance at the beginning of the second interval, walked through the hall to search for his secretary but couldn't find her (Gentile and she were on the way to the backstage area at this time), and left the opera house through the main entrance to search for her outside. He had been strolling about the place for a few minutes when he was suddenly struck by the idea that she must be waiting for him in his dressing room. Fearing that he might be discovered by an especially fearsome specimen of lovestruck fan if he passed the main entrance again, the singer walked around the opera house to enter it through the back entrance and returned to his dressing room only to discover that Miyano Shiho wasn't there either.

This is not the scene of a famous star searching for a friend and secretary, who is only playing the part of his girlfriend for a publicity stunt as Kudo claimed, Saguru thinks. The scene rather depicts an infatuated man combing the opera house for an indifferent love interest or—which is more likely considering the photo Saguru has seen—for a capricious lover.

"Did you touch the door when you entered Tenoh-san's dressing room to check her pulse?" Saguru asks Chiba.

"Of course I didn't. Gentile has left the door ajar, and Rei-chan, who was standing there alone before Seiya-kun and Makoto-chan joined us, was hugging herself and looked as if she was about to cry. I sensed that Haruka-san was dead even before I checked her pulse. Since I didn't have to touch the door to open it, I tried not to touch anything."

Perhaps Seiya Kou didn't leave the backstage café because he heard Miyano Shiho enter his dressing room but because he heard her cleaning Tenoh Haruka's room out of all places, Saguru corrects the hypothetical scene in his head. Blessed or rather cursed with an extremely acute sense of hearing, the singer must have heard something which triggered his suspicion. Leaving the backstage café for Tenoh Haruka's room, he gingerly placed his hand on the doorknob to turn it but changed his mind at the last minute and quietly retreated into his own dressing room—all the while listening to the sounds which had become familiar to him after four years of cohabiting and shared household chores.

His suspicion was confirmed when the door opened a few minutes later and he found himself face to face with his lover, who—taken aback by his presence—looked anxious and slightly out of breath but who managed to meet his eyes as if nothing had happened. Perhaps Seiya Kou had been out of his mind with jealousy for a minute before he realized that it was unlikely that she would end a secret rendezvous with a rigorous cleaning session. As for Miyano Shiho, she didn't know that the doorknob which she had already wiped from the inside and from the outside had been touched by her own boyfriend, who carelessly left his fingerprints on the doorknob and unknowingly turned himself into a suspect in this way.

No, much too dramatic, Saguru thinks, dismissing the whole theory at once. Apart from being absolutely preposterous because it turns the one suspect Kudo trusts into the culprit and requires her to have superhuman cleaning skills, it would also insult Seiya Kou's intelligence. The man had enough time to wipe the doorknob after everyone walked onstage. After learning about Tenoh Haruka's death, he must have been a fool not to remember that he had placed his fingerprints on the doorknob of Tenoh's dressing room and that he would automatically belong to the main suspects after he had wished her to "go to hell"…

…Unless he did remember it and still left it there, fueling commissario Lele Carrara's suspicion against himself. Actually, the well-preserved handprint on the doorknob suggests that Seiya Kou has intentionally placed his hand on the doorknob after his friends had gone onstage, leaving him and Miyano Shiho alone in the backstage area.

Far-fetched as it is, it is the only theory which explains Tenoh Haruka's mysterious death. Kuroba once mentioned that Hattori had warned him that the Black Organization was in possession of an undetectable poison. Since Miyano Shiho has studied at Infinity with Tenoh Haruka (Peter, an informant who once worked for MI5, has sent Hakuba a photo of the Infinity prodigies) and Infinity seemed to have been funded by the Organization (Professor Tomoe is known for blabbering "nonsense about the dress code of cocktails"), Saguru is positive that Miyano Shiho, whose majors at Infinity were biology and chemistry (as Natalie has found out), possesses the skills to combine the characteristics of an undetectable poison with a powerful painkiller. On the other hand, if Saguru had the formula to the Organization's undetectable drug, even Saguru could create a painless poison with the help of a bit of morphine. Chiba could have easily done it, as well as anyone else with brains and enough motivation to learn.

From an objective observer's point of view, however, Miyano Shiho should be the main suspect, Saguru thinks, wondering why commissario Carrara didn't suspect her at all. The commissario (and even Kudo?) had been focusing on Seiya Kou during the interrogations, overlooking the obvious as if both of them had been sidetracked by the singer's oddly flippant behaviour.

People do all sorts of insane stuff in the name of love, Saguru ponders—things which sensible human beings like Saguru would never do. But is he really so immune against irrational thinking when it comes to the one that matters most? Remembering how he was sick with rage and fear when he heard that Watson had been shot, Saguru wonders whether he would have directed the commissario's suspicion towards himself to protect his girlfriend even if he was sure that she had just committed a murder.

x.


	22. Part Three: After pondering...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**After pondering…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

After pondering the most obvious solution of the case, Saguru begins to focus on the little incongruities which need to be taken into account before one grows inordinately fond of a theory. In every case Saguru has solved there have been discrepancies in the witness accounts—discrepancies which were either the key to the solution or only annoying mistakes the witnesses made when their memories failed them. Most people are so unreliable that it is better not to listen to their witness accounts at all and stick to the hard facts instead. In this case, however, the discrepancies are so glaring that it is impossible to ignore them.

First, seemingly reliable witnesses have mixed up the order of the most simple actions while, curiously enough, they had kept track of the exact time those actions happened. Saguru, who is accustomed to record the exact time of events, knows that usually witnesses don't keep track of time at all. Alessandra DiGiorgio, the usher Seiya Kou flirted with, for example, happened to remember that he was chatting with her from six past eight to sixteen past eight. What sort of awestruck fan would memorize such a bureaucratic detail when she is talking to her star?

Luigi Gentile said he had been talking with Seiya Kou _before_ he went to Tenoh Haruka the second time. But this was impossible assuming Chiba Mamoru's witness account was true. According to Chiba, Seiya Kou talked to Gentile after flirting with the usher, meaning it must have happened after eight sixteen if Alessandra DiGiorgio's witness account can be trusted. Gentile visited Tenoh for the second time at eight fifteen. If Chiba was right, Seiya Kou must have talked to Gentile several minutes after eight sixteen, when Gentile had already visited Tenoh's dressing room for the second time and returned to the bar for another drink.

However, Seiya Kou asserted that he had talked with Gentile before talking to the usher, which would agree with Gentile's statement. Assuming Gentile and Seiya Kou were right and Chiba Mamoru was wrong, Gentile and Seiya Kou talked with each other between eight and six past eight. The artistic director knocked at Tenoh Haruka's door for the first time at eight o'clock and climbed the staircase to Hino's dressing room afterwards to inform her about the delay of the third act before he went to the bar. He must have needed a few minutes to do these things, meaning that Seiya Kou and he most probably talked with each other at five past eight o'clock. It was possible but ridiculous considering the map of the opera house, which Saguru studied last night when he couldn't sleep in his third-rate pension.

Before Saguru's eyes, Saguru can see the artistic director climb the stairs to Hino's dressing room, knock at her door, open the door only to throw a few sentences at her, slam her door shut, run downstairs, pass the corridor of the backstage area to walk to the stage, run down the stage, hurry through the hall, leave the hall, run through the corridors in front of the hall to the bar to order a drink. Everything in less than five minutes despite the crowd in the hall and in the corridors. One could believe Luigi Gentile was a runner of Tenoh Haruka's caliber!

Then Seiya Kou, who had entered the backstage area through the exit just when Gentile had left it, walked into his dressing room where he either didn't find Miyano Shiho or found her fast asleep (he must have checked his dressing room if he wasn't an absolute airhead!), raced through the corridor into the hall, passed the usher with whom he would flirt one minute later (had he been following Gentile, whom he spotted when he entered the concert hall?), and finally approached Gentile at the bar where they only exchanged a few words before he returned to the hall to flirt with the usher for ten minutes even though he seemed in such a hurry only a minute ago. Saguru, who visited Alessandra DiGiorgio's blog before he departed for the Gritti, has seen her photo and read a few entries. The girl was painfully vacuous and dull, and certainly not pretty enough to make Seiya Kou overlook her weaknesses. In the ten minutes with her, the singer must have died of boredom.

The scene doesn't make sense at all. And why should Chiba Mamoru, who has an excellent memory for facts and figures, mix up the order of two simple actions?

"Did you see Seiya Kou talking to both the usher and the artistic director while you were chatting with your wife?" Saguru asks the man opposite him. "With whom did he talk first?"

"He talked with the usher first, flirted with her, from the look of things, before he went to the bar and chatted with Gentile," Chiba claims, looking Saguru directly in the eye. He appears slightly defensive, either because he is lying (in a well-meant attempt to protect someone?) or because he is indignant at being questioned.

"I'm just curious." Saguru gives him an apologetic smile. "Old habits die hard. Even when I'm holidaying, I can't help solving cases when I encounter one. And this one is extremely intriguing, in my opinion."

"Is it really that intriguing?" Chiba frowns. "In my opinion, it's ridiculously simple. Haruka-san died of unknown causes while Makoto-chan, Shiho-san, Rei-chan, and Seiya-kun didn't have a real alibi for less than fifteen minutes... less than ten minutes, in my opinion. I don't think the medical examiner is going to find a trace of poison in Haruka-san's body, and her dressing room was clean and orderly." Under these circumstances, the commissario can't arrest anyone—Chiba concludes—not even when the dressing room is full of Seiya-kun's fingerprints since he has stolen Haruka-san's sofa for Shiho-san, as Makoto-chan told Chiba.

Naturally, the dressing room should have been full of Seiya Kou's fingerprints—another clue which supports Saguru's theory that the singer is innocent, as he wouldn't have needed to clean the dressing room so thoroughly if he had been the culprit. He could have claimed to have left his fingerprints when he took the sofa from Tenoh's dressing room. Moreover, his behaviour suggests that Tenoh and he weren't sworn enemies despite her schemes and their heated quarrels. One usually doesn't nick an enemy's sofa for one's lover.

"I'm not looking at this from the point of view of a law enforcement officer," Saguru remarks, running his hand through his hair. From the corner of the room, the attractive blonde waitress is watching him with interest. Flattered, he turns his head to wink at her, which she responds with a smile. "I don't need to arrest murderers—I want to know how their minds work. I'm interested in the reasons why a culprit would commit a murder. And if the murderer has a fascinating personality, I'll be extremely intrigued by their personal modus operandi." Sipping at his coffee, he lightly adds, "But I also have a strong sense of justice and like to see the 'bad guys' get their just punishment, which doesn't mean I always want to see an arrest. Sometimes a suicide or divine punishment in form of an accident will suffice as well."

"You're much more cynical than you look," Chiba, taken aback by Saguru's last sentence, exclaims. "White is the colour of purity, but your name doesn't match your personality at all." Irritated, he puts his watch back into his pocket as though he were about to leave. But then he changes his mind and leans back into his chair with a frown.

"You think it doesn't?" Saguru smiles, amused at Chiba's small outburst. The man has a hidden romantic side, a weakness for drama he revealed when he talked about Seiya Kou's doomed loves for his wife and for Kakyuu. "Maybe my name does match my character if you give it a second thought. Purity isn't always equivalent with kindness and compassion. Kindness and compassion require that one has the ability to sympathize with deeply flawed, irrational human beings. But I've always preferred justice and logic—in fact, this world would be a much better place if people were more rational!—although I admit that even I do have an irrational, emotional side, which often interferes with the better part of my mind."

"So the 'better part' of your mind is intrigued by Haruka-san's death?" Chiba raises his brow. "What's so interesting about the case?"

"The question of space and time," Saguru explains, pulling out his pocket-sized notebook. "Look, maybe you'll understand what I mean if I draw you a timeline…"

With his favourite pen (a Montblanc limited edition), Saguru gives Chiba an overview of the puzzle.

"In my timeline, I'm going to focus on Seiya Kou, Luigi Gentile, and you, since you three were walking around between eight and half past eight while everyone else stayed at their initial place, according to their witness statements. Guido Moretti (GM) was reading romance novels at the exit. Kino Makoto (KM) was in the backstage café, talking on the phone. Hino Rei (HR) was studying her scores in her dressing room directly above Tenoh's, and Miyano Shiho (MS) was sleeping in Seiya Kou's dressing room."

_8:00:00 p.m.:_

CM is chatting with his wife in front of the concert hall.

LG knocks at TH's door. TH sends him away.

LG informs HR about the delay of the 3rd act.

LG leaves the backstage area for the bar near the main entrance.

SK enters the backstage area through the exit (according to GM).

SK asks LG about the whereabouts of MS (according to SK and LG; CM claims SK talked with LG after flirting with AD).

_8:06.00 p.m.:_

SK flirts with AD and gives her an autograph on her arm.

_08:15:00 p.m.:_

LG returns to TH, who sends him away again, claiming she needs another 15 min.

LG returns to the bar.

"He didn't mention seeing Seiya Kou on the way. There are two entrances to the concert hall, so I suppose he either saw Seiya Kou and didn't mention it or he took the other entrance. Did you see him?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't pay attention," Chiba admits. "I remember chatting with my wife and describing to her how Seiya-kun was flirting with the usher. It was fascinating to watch how he turned the poor girl's head."

_8:16:00 p.m.:_

SK returns to the backstage area. (CM claims SK walks to the bar to LG, who must have gone to the backstage area to call TH and come back to the bar within only one minute if CM's claim is right.)

"The more I think about your witness account, the less I can trust it," Saguru calmly remarks. "Gentile couldn't have gone to Tenoh's room, talked to her, and returned to the bar within only one minute. But I'm going to check this later when I go to La Fenice to replay the scene and stop the time."

"And I once thought _I'm_ overly pedantic," Chiba comments with a laugh.

"Just wait and see," Saguru sharply returns. "You'll understand when I'm done with this."

_08:16:00 p.m. (or 08:17:00 p.m. or 08:18.00 p.m., as KM is not sure of the exact time):_

SK drinks sherry with KM in the backstage café and flirts with AM on the phone. (SK claims to have visited HR before visiting KM, which would be true according to HR's statement but impossible considering the much too narrow timespan.)

A few minutes later, SK returns to his dressing room.

"It must have been at eight eighteen p.m. if the usher didn't overestimate the time Seiya Kou had spent with her. One needs at least two minutes to pass a concert hall, climb the stage, go to the backstage café, make small talk, and pour oneself a drink," Saguru remarks. "And this is still a much too narrow timespan. Your acquaintances are all olympic runners! Still, I'll try to believe that Seiya Kou, a tactile prodigy, could have done this."

_8:25:00 p.m.:_

SK visits HR. (She claims it was at 08:15:00 p.m., but her clock was 10 min slow. She still insists in her statement that she has taken those ten minutes into account and automatically added them and that he came to her at 08:15:00 p.m. and stayed for a few minutes. If her statement was right, it would agree with SK's statement that he visited her before visiting KM but would also imply that AD's witness account was wrong.)

"Hino Rei's or the usher's—whose witness account would you trust?" Saguru asks.

"Rei-chan's, of course. She is very smart and doesn't let her emotions colour her perception."

_08:30:00 p.m.:_

CM stops chatting with his wife, who has gone to bed at 03:30:00 a.m. in Tokyo, and returns to his seat.

LG visits TH for the third time and discovers her corpse. (LG must have been standing in front of the door "for an eternity", as CM claims to have been waiting "for an eternity" before LG asked him for help.)

LG runs to the concert hall to ask CM for help.

CM and LG return to TH's dressing room, where HR was already standing (according to CM during breakfast at the Gritti; LG claims he has been running upstairs with CM to HR to fetch her).

"Luigi Gentile says in his witness account that you two called Hino Rei after checking on Tenoh while you claim that she had been standing in front of the door, hugging herself," Saguru points out.

"He was hysterical," Chiba asserts. "I don't think he even saw her standing at the door. He was muttering to himself that it was a disaster, that his career was ruined if Haruka-san didn't wake up. Rei-chan must have come down by herself. Gentile left the door to Haruka-san's dressing room ajar when he went to fetch me so that she saw Haruka-san's corpse before I did. She stayed until I checked Haruka-san's pulse and knew Haruka-san was dead before I said a word. Afterwards she returned to her room—I suspect she cried a bit, wiped her eyes, and reapplied her mascara—so we had to go upstairs to fetch her before the opera could continue. I was impressed that she could sing the third act as if nothing had happened."

"Seiya Kou joined you at Tenoh's door. Then he fetched Kino Makoto from the backstage café before he returned to Miyano Shiho while Kino, Gentile, and you went onstage. But when exactly did you continue the third act?"

"I don't know. I was too shocked by what happened to check the time. I'm sure the others don't know either. Gentile was having a nervous breakdown while Rei-chan, Makoto-chan, and Seiya-kun didn't wear a watch."

"But how long did it take to perform the third act?" Saguru insists. There must be a way to calculate the time the third act started, which Carrara, who only cared about the time Gentile discovered Tenoh's corpse, didn't record in his minute.

"I don't know," Chiba Mamoru blinks at him in surprise. "It felt like an eternity because I was struggling with the technique. It was hard for me to focus after Haruka-san's death, and I tried to keep a steady rhythm, which irritated Rei-chan. Somehow we managed to finish it together because the third act is technically the easiest. But I don't think she was very happy because she was in a terrible mood afterwards… I was sorry I couldn't support her onstage. At least it showed me I'm not cut out to be a musician."

Saguru is not at all interested in Chiba's stage experience but only in the time it took Chiba to finish the opera. The opera is officially scheduled to end at half past nine p.m., meaning the third act is supposed to last for an hour and thirty minutes unless they have taken Tenoh Haruka's usual thirty-minute delay into account and added it to the time on the flyer.

"How long is the piece you were supposed to play in the third act?" Saguru tries to estimate the time in a different way. "Does it last for an hour or for ninety minutes?" Thirty minutes are such a huge timespan for a musician that Chiba must be able to tell the difference unless he is intentionally hiding something.

"About an hour if one doesn't play very fast but manages to keep the initial speed," Chiba rummages in his memory. "It's extremely long for a piece for soprano and piano. But it's difficult for me to say it for sure since the whole accompaniment consisted of only a few patterns, which appeared in every possible permutation. Rei-chan's part was extremely demanding and difficult to memorize, so she had to study the scores whenever she could. My part wasn't hard to memorize but extremely difficult to play as well since it was impossible to stay focused for so long. The time also varies depending on the speed at which you play it. I always needed about an hour, I think, sometimes more, sometimes less. Haruka-san managed to get through it in less than forty minutes."

"That means they did take her thirty-minute delay into account," Saguru murmurs. "Those, and then a few minutes for the curtain calls…"

Chiba gives him a blank look, whereupon Saguru only sighs and puts the last words down:

_10:05:00 p.m.:_

Curtain falls. CM interrogation.

"Time is our biggest problem," Saguru explains. "According to the witness statements, Seiya Kou appeared at different places at the same time, or appeared at different places without anyone seeing him on the way. Before he returned to the opera house before the third act, he must have come through the main entrance and walked through the hall before he went out again. But you didn't see him. The same happened when he came back to the opera house after searching for Miyano Shiho's painkillers: When Tenoh asked Kino Makoto for the cup of water, Kino Makoto and Guido Moretti saw Seiya Kou leave the opera house through the exit. But neither of them could tell how he had come back during the second act. He couldn't have come through the hall since all the doors to the hall were closed during the second act. And where have all those minutes gone?"

"Maybe he came back just when the second act ended and the doors were opened. He's not that conspicuous," Chiba says dismissively. "When he walks around and doesn't want to be recognized, he'll just tuck his ponytail into his jacket and change his gait. He is an extremely good actor. You wouldn't recognize him even without makeup just because he can change like a chameleon." However, Chiba can't understand Saguru's odd question where all those minutes have gone, as people aren't machines. A few minutes more or less are completely irrelevant to the average person. Watches can also be slightly slow or fast, just as memory can be unreliable. Why should it matter?

"Because in this case, time is of primary importance," Saguru asserts. "Why did Seiya Kou run in and out of the opera house like that after he couldn't find Miyano Shiho's painkillers at home? When I inquired about the case—just out of curiosity—my informants told me there hadn't been any fingerprints except for Tenoh-san's fingerprints in Tenoh-san's room." Saguru cautiously neglects to mention Kudo's fingerprints and an unknown handprint on the doorknob outside, which must belong to Seiya Kou if it doesn't belong to Chiba. "Someone removed all the fingerprints and put Tenoh's fingerprints back afterwards. It's impossible to do it in less than fifteen minutes. But with a few minutes more, say, twenty or twenty five, it would be possible for someone who has planned it in advance. And where, do you think, have all those minutes between half past eight and the time the third act started gone?"

"I don't understand what you mean."

"The time of your interrogation," Saguru shows Chiba his timeline once again. Carrara wrote in his report that he interrogated Chiba Mamoru at five past ten, immediately after the curtain calls. Perhaps Gentile had been dawdling, perhaps Chiba couldn't keep the required speed, playing the piece much too slowly, and perhaps they had been fretting at Tenoh's door for a few minutes before going onstage. But it would still not explain the time difference of thirty-five minutes.

"They already took the thirty-minute delay into account when they wrote the flyer," Saguru explains. "Hence, even with the thirty-minute delay and a few minutes of the aftermath before you all went onstage, the third act ended much too late. I'd have accepted a delay of fifteen minutes but not thirty-five. Hino's room was directly above Tenoh's dressing room. It couldn't have taken you so long to ask her to go onstage. Gentile also said that you all rushed there because it was already so late."

"You're the most pedantic man I've ever met," Chiba laughs in disbelief. "Maybe I played the piece much too slowly…"

"Maybe," Saguru murmurs. "I can accept it if it happens once or twice—but when a few minutes seem to be missing everywhere so that the witnesses can't agree with each other, I get the feeling that it has been stolen by someone." After making Kuroba's acquaintance, Saguru is prone to suspect a magic trick behind the slightest incongruity. Uncertain about the validity of his own deductions, he frowns at the deep green water of the Canal, where the sunlight is refracted in the rising waves.

"Haruka-san once said that if you 'steal time' by accelerating, you need to give it back later when you slow down," Chiba distractedly remarks. "She also said that a great musician must possess a strong internal beat. I suppose I took her too literally when I performed her piece as if I had been playing with a metronome and aggravated Rei-chan, who said it was a stiff performance."

"Tenoh must have been a great musician," remarks Saguru generously and immediately straightens himself on his chair as he is hit by an epiphany. In his mind, Saguru can see Seiya Kou hiding onstage behind the curtain, closing his eyes to count the beat. For a gifted musician and dancer who can calculate the exact amount of beats he is going to need for his steps in advance, keeping track of time without a watch is not impossible.

"Metronome," Saguru groans, thinking aloud as he always does when he can't believe his own stupidity. "You can measure one second accurately with the help of a metronome, can't you?"

"Of course. Even I know you only need to set it sixty beats per minute," Chiba shrugs. "And I'm just an amateur." As if he finally realizes that he has just endangered a friend with his careless remark, he makes an effort to distract Saguru by asking: "Who's AD? Your use of initials is confusing. I can tell AM is Aino Minako, but AD? Is it the name of the usher?"

"'AD' is Alessandra DiGiorgio, the usher at the entrance where you were standing—the usher Seiya Kou flirted with."

"Where did you get that information?" Chiba asks Saguru with audible admiration. However, Saguru isn't vain enough not to recognize the hint of despair in his voice.

"Her blog," Saguru continues the charade nonetheless, partly out of pity, partly because he needs time to think. "She claims she is the first fan whom he has ever given an autograph on the arm, which is why she isn't going to wash her right hand, which he has shaken, and her left arm, on which he has written, for a whole week or even longer."

"I don't know he does it," Chiba chuckles. "The women are always chasing him although he is always fleeing from them. His flirting is usually harmless. But they'd obsess over him afterwards and stay in love for years…"

Her left arm! The left wrist is the wrist where a woman would usually wear her vintage watch, Saguru realizes, no longer paying attention to Chiba's forced chatter. For an outstanding actor who also worked as an artist and magician in a circus when he was only fifteen, putting such a watch back or forward while the poor lovestruck woman was distracted by his pretty face is a walk in the park! Seiya Kou has stolen a few minutes during his seemingly random visits and flirts. However, since he could only have stolen time in tiny trickles which don't seem to make a difference, Saguru admits in astonishment that he can't explain the singer's odd behaviour.

x.


	23. Part Three: Enticed by...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Enticed by…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Enticed by the brilliant sun, Saguru and Chiba Mamoru have moved to the terrace of the Gritti Palace, where the stunning view of the Grand Canal makes even Saguru feel a sentimental tug at his heart for the people who have been affected by the tragedy last night. Kaioh Michiru, for instance, the famous "empress of the sea" with her mermaid's hair and her unfathomable eyes, makes an ideal tragic heroine, who must be mourning her life partner's death at the moment. Even if she had made her lover drink a mysterious poison in the belief that it was a painkiller specially designed for her, thus committing a murder from afar, it wouldn't make her less pitiful to Saguru considering how openly and insistently the love of her life had been courting Miyano Shiho during the past years. While Kaioh doesn't belong to the suspects, as she couldn't have removed the fingerprints in the dressing room, she could have found a partner in crime in Seiya Kou, who could have cleaned the dressing room between his flirts to draw the investigators' attention away from Kaioh. He could also have cleaned the dressing room to draw attention away from himself—the only person who wouldn't have had to clean it if he had committed the murder. It would explain why he had to steal time while talking with Gentile and the usher even though he couldn't have stolen more than a few minutes.

Where did the rest of the time go, Saguru wonders, dismissing this theory. The most important clues are the undetectable drug and the missing time, both of which lead to Miyano Shiho and Seiya Kou's doorstep. Miyano Shiho, however, who would have had the means, doesn't have a motive. And Seiya Kou's many motives seem too small to explain such a risky murder.

Why at La Fenice out of all places? Why not in Tenoh's apartment or during a friendly gathering instead? It would have been child's play to make it look like a natural death in Tenoh's apartment. They could even have committed a locked room murder. It would have been easier to plan, especially for people who can disguise themselves like Seiya, who is a first-rate actor, and Miyano, who is an ex-Black-Organization-member. Was Kaioh the culprit? It would explain why she didn't want to kill her lover at home, as she would have been the number one suspect in that case.

Having spent a few minutes going through several hypotheses in his mind, Saguru gives his brain a break. He is not at his best at the moment due to the previous sleepless night. After a long nap, he is going to walk to La Fenice to replay Seiya Kou's and Luigi Gentile's actions before continuing his investigation. Kudo might have solved the case by then, as staggeringly fast as he always is. Moreover, Kudo may have dug out more information than Saguru since he was at the scene of the crime.

Saguru's main quest in Venice is still his search for Tenoh Akira alias Jean Black, the man who has shot Watson to lure him to this city, even though the villain seems to have disappeared without a trace. If this case is related to Pandora's Box as it looks, why hasn't Kuroba been "invited" to Venice as well? Kuroba played a much larger part in it, as he was the one who impersonated Kudo to distract the Black Organization's spies. Saguru, just like Hattori Heiji, whom he impersonated, remained in the background during the whole operation.

For the first time since his arrival in Venice, Saguru wonders whether Hattori's death was really an accident or whether the hot-headed detective had stumbled over something (or someone?) he shouldn't have seen. What did he do after Kudo left him on the ship? He was an impatient, resourceful young man, who needed to stay awake in the darkness despite the autopilot—just in case something unexpected happened. Miyano Shiho—or rather Haibara Ai, as she called herself at that time—was there, but Kudo once mentioned during the search for her that she was wounded.

Most probably, Hattori had been whiling away the time by talking to her or studying the files. And then something must have happened (during the storm, before the storm?) which resulted in Hattori's death and Haibara Ai's survival…

A familiar sound from his phone startles Saguru out of his dark contemplations. It's a message from Natalie, who knows all sorts of dubious people (one of whom is the anonymous hacker who has managed to copy Lele Carrara's minute of the Tenoh Haruka case, which the commissario has carelessly backed up in his online storage).

"Akira Tenoh is a notorious flirt among the art students in New York, Tokyo, and Paris," Natalie wrote, "although the pretty jerk tends to let his girls down by dropping them after the second or third date like a hot potato. Must be a real tease just like his sister! He usually leaves his private number on a small artist trading card although there isn't a drawing but a small art print on it. Isn't it classy?"

Suppressing a sigh, Saguru notes once again that, as terrifically hard-working and fast as she is, Natalie is also unbearably vague and tends to miss the most important clues.

"Excuse me," he tells Chiba Mamoru and quickly replies to the message: "What art print? Are the cards always the same?"

Natalie's answer comes so fast that Saguru almost suspects her of withholding the information this time just to tease him.

"Always the same. One of the finest paintings by Van Gogh. The super-famous one with the black cypress and Venus directly next to it, you know. The one with the crescent moon."

Moon, star, cypress. There are several names which the card could allude to.

"Seiya Kou's name is written in katakana," Saguru remarks. "Do you know the kanji for his name?"

"Why are you so interested in his name?" Chiba, who has been silently watching him in the meantime, gives him another mistrustful look.

"Because all of your friends have speaking names: Tenoh Haruka—the 'distant ruler of heaven,' Kaioh Michiru—the 'mature ruler of the sea,' Hino Rei—the 'beauty of fire' or the 'spirit of fire.' It's hard to decide since her first name is written in katakana as well."

"It means both, she once told me." Chiba smiles at the remembrance. "The ambiguity is intentional."

"Very nice. Kino Makoto—'sincerity of wood,' Aino Minako—'beautiful child of love.' Your name is a speaking name as well. Chiba Mamoru—'protector of earth.'"

"Usako has a speaking name, too," Chiba remarks. "Before our marriage, her name was 'Tsukino Usagi.'"

"The 'moon rabbit,' interesting!" Natalie did mention that there was a crescent moon on the painting. However, the sky on the painting could be a reference to Tenoh Haruka's name—the "distant ruler of heaven"— while Venus, the planet whose name is also the name of the Roman goddess of love, could be an allusion to Aino Minako, the "beautiful child of love." The cypress can be read as the equivalent of "wood", which can be found in Kino Makoto's name, whereas Seiya's name, if it contains the kanji for "star" as Saguru believes, is evocative of a starlit night.

"In katakana, the meaning of Seiya Kou's name isn't clear," Saguru muses. "Also, he reversed his name—Kou Seiya—and changed it into 'Seiya Kou' onstage. But since you obviously don't know it, I'll just ask someone else."

Chiba hesitates, knits his brows, debates with himself whether he should talk or would rather keep the knowledge to himself…

"Seiya-kun wrote his name in kanji whenever he sent Usako a postcard," Chiba says at last. "The kanji 'sei' in Seiya-kun's name is the same as 'star'. The 'ya' is the same kanji as 'no', and means 'field' if it's pronounced like that. Hence I think his name is supposed to mean 'the light of a starfield.' But I see you can ask _him_ about his name since he is coming here."

x.

Apparently, the wildly popular Seiya Kou belongs to the type of man that women immediately love and men immediately hate. From the first moment since his arrival, all the men on the terrace have been shooting disapproving glances at his battered accordion. The dedicated actor must have disguised himself as a street musician this morning, as evidenced by the remains of make-up on his right thumb. Even without the mask, which Seiya must have removed before coming to the Gritti, his disguise is remarkable.

Despite himself, Saguru is momentarily distracted by the singer's dishevelled hair (a dusty bird's nest of short loose locks curling in all directions if one overlooks his ponytail hidden in his jacket—not even Kuroba's hair has ever reached this level of messiness), his unpolished, worn shoes, his shabby leather jacket (on which not only professional detectives and weather experts can read the rain of the last weeks), the tiny fresh injuries on his slightly stubbly chin (drunk shaving with a blunt razor is never a good idea), and his conspicuous shirt, which must have been part of a d'Artagnan theatre costume once. His long ponytail, stuffed into the half-open jacket above the waist-high vintage belt, also creates the illusion of a hump. Next to Chiba Mamoru, whose black tuxedo is as smooth as his polished gold pocket watch and his gelled hair, Seiya looks like a vagabond (albeit a pretty one) who has just woken up and been tottering through the city before coming to the Gritti in a post-drunk haze. And yet—even though the singer is barely recognizable to the people who only know his flamboyant alter ego onstage—the blonde waitress, like all the other women in the vicinity, is already throwing longing glances in his direction.

Trying to see him with the eyes of a neutral observer, Saguru acknowledges the man's peculiar attractiveness, which the bohemian outfit has not managed to hide. Apart from its most felicitous proportions and contours, nature has also bestowed on him its most radiant colouring. Saguru's generosity towards Seiya, however, undergoes a trial by fire when the blonde waitress minces to their table to offer the singer a cup of cappuccino and to admire his d'Artagnan shirt: Such an original idea! She has never seen anyone wearing something so gorgeous now that all men have become so buttoned-up and boring! Smiling sweetly at him with her sparkling emerald eyes, she lets her fingertips trail appreciatively along his cuff and touches the back of his hand so fleetingly that it could have passed as an accident. Oblivious to her advances, the singer only murmurs a genial "Thank you."

Women—or human beings in general?—are inherently shallow creatures! Smitten by Seiya's voice, the waitress—who until now has offered unobtrusive, impeccable service—ignores both Chiba's and Saguru's empty cups to make small talk with the singer.

An accordionist! They've become so rare these days. She absolutely loves these Parisian melodies they always play.

Yes, but he is just an amateur accordionist, and a new one to boot—as of today.

Why, his accordion looks so old. She could have sworn he has been playing it all his life.

It's a new purchase, actually. The accordion belongs to an old acquaintance, who has just given it up for the guitar, as it is too heavy to tote around.

So what is he going to play first? Can he already play it, or is he learning it? Will it be a no-strings-attached, on-and-off relationship, or will it be something more serious to him?

He played it for a few years when he was small. Hence he is going to play a few simple tunes on it and improvise until he has the motivation and time to practice more. After all, one can't be serious about too many things at the same time without neglecting the important ones.

Ten minutes and forty-three seconds later—after Chiba has gently reminded the blonde beauty that they are thirsty and the poor woman has finally woken up from the spell—the three of them are sipping their cappuccinos and chatting like old acquaintances who are taking a Venice trip together, an illusion heightened by the spectacular view and the summery weather. Seiya, who is on the way to Kino Makoto's shop to buy flowers and cakes for tea ("Shiho's order!"), has come to the Gritti to talk with Chiba about Chiba's wife. Since Yaten and Taiki, Seiya's brothers, have decided to grace Venice with their presence tomorrow to admonish Seiya for the scandal, "Odango" can come with them in their private jet if she doesn't mind canceling her flight. They both like her very much, and Seiya thinks she would prefer flying with them to flying alone. He has already talked with her on the phone, but she still hesitates to say yes because she doesn't know whether Chiba would like it.

He is going to talk it over with his wife the next time they chat, Chiba agrees, although he doesn't think that it is possible. "Ami-chan is busy, so she can only come over on Monday night. And you know Usako—she can't bear to leave Luna on her own for too long."

"Ah, Luna… Well, Yaten would like to bring her here to play with Artemis, if you don't mind. Since she is so tough, I don't think she will suffer from the long-distance flight."

Luna and Artemis are two cats, as Saguru can make out during the conversation. Luna is Chiba Usagi's black cat while Artemis is the white tomcat of Aino Minako, the actress who sang the main role in _Beauty and the Beast_ at La Fenice and who is going to sing Meg Giri in _The Phantom of the Opera_. She wanted to attend Tenoh's opera yesterday but couldn't come because of a minor cold she had to get rid of before the opening night. As always, luck was on Minako-chan's side, Chiba Mamoru dryly remarks. If she had come to La Fenice yesterday evening, she would have become another suspect instead of Makoto-chan's alibi.

Thankful that Chiba has unintentionally provided him with a smooth transition from small talk to the La Fenice case, Saguru grabs the chance to interrogate Seiya Kou. However, the singer is a much harder nut to crack than Chiba Mamoru despite his open attitude. He has a terrible memory for almost everything, Seiya cheerily asserts. "If I didn't practise so much and repeat my repertoire so often, I'd forget even my own lyrics."

"But I suppose you know the exact time when you returned to La Fenice? Since you tried to come in time to watch the third act, you must have paid attention to it."

"Did I say I wanted to watch the third act?" Seiya throws Saguru a genuinely bewildered glance.

"So you didn't want to come back in time to watch the third act?"

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I don't know, I've forgotten." He looks suitably embarrassed. "After a few hours of sleep, everything has been wiped out. My memory is very selective. It chooses to remember only the good things and weeds out all the negative ones."

After a few failed attempts at grilling Seiya, who is as oblivious and inaccessible as a green salad without dressing, Saguru begins to pity Kudo, who must have interrogated the singer last night. It wouldn't be the first time that a perfectly competent detective has been stymied by an uncooperative witness. In this case, however, it is hard to say whether the singer knows too much and only plays dumb or whether he really doesn't know anything at all.

"I see you usually don't wear a wristwatch," Saguru observes, indicating Seiya's immaculate wrist.

"I don't need one," Seiya shrugs. Shiho always reminds him of the time and drags him out of their apartment whenever it is time for him to go to his rehearsals and performances. Watches are usually redundant, as time is a personal experience one can't really measure.

"You can check the time on your mobile phone," Saguru suggests.

He does it sometimes—very seldom—but usually he would just set a timer. Since it makes him nervous and ruins his attention span in the long run, he refuses to succumb to the annoying habit of checking his phone every few seconds, Seiya calmly asserts, visibly amused by Saguru's attempts to question him about the time.

"So you don't wear a watch and seldom check the time on your phone," Saguru moves in for the kill. "But I bet you're carrying a pocket metronome around like many musicians do!"

In spite of the sudden change of topic, which should have been confusing to anyone who hasn't overheard the talk between Saguru and Chiba before Seiya's arrival, Seiya's eyes light up in delight, revealing that the singer is not as clueless as he pretends to be. At the same time, Saguru is struck by the realization that the man has very intriguing opalescent blue eyes, which seem to shift between startlingly bright and mysteriously dark depending on the angle of the light, and that he would only need a pair of gold or amber freckled contact lenses to turn them into a blueish shimmering hazel.

"I never use a metronome," Seiya declares in youthful arrogance, "I don't even own one." A metronome only fosters bad habits and leads to stiff performances, he explains, as the beat should never stay the same during the whole song.

The longer Saguru talks to Seiya Kou, the more confusing the case becomes. Seiya sounds honest when he claims that he never wears a watch and doesn't even own a metronome. He doesn't think that anyone disliked Haruka-san enough to kill her, as nasty as she could be at times, he asserts. As for Shiho—she spent so much time with Haruka-san that he was almost jealous, which says a lot about her friendship with Haruka-san since he isn't a jealous person. He can remember that she was fast asleep when he found her on the sofa he took from Haruka-san. He didn't consider it stealing, as Haruka-san used to complain about the clunky redundant sofa while Shiho used to complain about the uncomfortable chairs.

"It was a win-win situation," Seiya smiles, which causes the women in the vicinity to swoon and the men to sigh. A five-year-old girl impulsively leaps from her chair and runs to him to grin at him with her large imploring eyes. Unable to resist her gaze, the singer surrenders and gives her the cookie on his saucer.

Such a nice man, her mother beams. Why don't you say thank you?

The makings of a future femme fatale can be recognized at an early age. The five-year-old shows considerable potential when she—ignoring the cookie, which she has pocketed like a trophy—boldly draws Seiya by his shirt down to her and gives the startled singer a smacking kiss on the lips. This time, the women sigh while the men start laughing.

"I'm going to tell Shiho-san!" Chiba threatens, laughing about Seiya's predicament, whereupon Seiya blushes and murmurs that the home wreckers are getting younger and younger.

Learning from other people's mistakes as quickly as from his own, Saguru eats his cookie himself and studiously ignores the little precocious brat—who has shamelessly made herself comfortable on Seiya's lap—before she can turn whatever she has learned into a pattern.

"So, _when_ did you find Miyano Shiho in your dressing room?"

After he left the backstage café. Shiho was curled up like a cat as always when she is napping, Seiya smirks in reminiscence. As scatterbrained as he is, he had been running through the whole opera house to search for her instead of going straight to his dressing room after his return (he came through the back entrance and walked across the backstage area to the concert hall). He admits it was pretty stupid of him, but he didn't expect that it would look suspicious enough for other people to accuse him of murder…

"Do _you_ remember everything you did yesterday?" Seiya gives Saguru a prepossessing smile, nonchalantly stirring his cappuccino without drinking it. "I don't, especially not before a musical when I'm extremely busy. I know I had been running around, talking with Gentile and an usher who wanted an autograph from me. But to be honest, those things were so random and unimportant that I don't really remember them anymore."

But perhaps he still remembers the order, Saguru refuses to give up. Did he talk to Gentile or to the usher first?

"I told the commissario that you talked to the usher first," Chiba interjects. "But since _you_ said that you talked to Gentile first, everyone thinks that I was wrong."

The girl on Seiya's lap throws a tantrum when she has to leave, and her mother only succeeds to coax her away with the lie that her new love will be around when they return from their trip.

"Ah, then you must have been right," Seiya concedes after a thoughtful pause. "I thought you were distracted by Odango and misremembered it. But now that I think about it, you must be right because I don't remember it anymore." Flashing Saguru a mischievous smile, he apologetically adds, "Sorry for the confusion, but singers aren't exactly famous for their high intelligence, are they? Since we need a lot of free space in our body for a great sound, only a minimum of braincells are allowed to stay."

He proceeds to drink his cappuccino in blissful silence, beholding the scenery on the other side of the Canal with the appreciation of a true aesthete without paying much attention to Saguru's questions although he continues to answer them with the absent smile of someone who tries to be polite without being in the least interested in them. Why did he go out during the opera? To buy Shiho painkillers since he has lost all their painkillers while cleaning the apartment (he has probably thrown them away with the trash). He is terribly disorganized, and she hates him for it so much that she has more than once ended their relationship just to return to him a few hours later. It's a classical case of opposites attract. They can neither live with nor without each other.

Which painkillers do they have at home?

What shall he say, he can't remember… He has just admitted to Saguru that his memory is substandard, hasn't he? Shiho usually buys the stuff. He would have bought the strongest painkiller he could find for her, but the stores were all closed when he came. It doesn't help that he still loses his way in Venice despite having lived here for four years.

How long have they been together? It must have been hard to hide it from the reporters.

Almost four years, which doesn't seem very long to him since they see each other much too seldom. They are both so busy that they're happy whenever they manage to snatch a few free minutes for each other between his rehearsals, performances, and travels.

They are _both_ busy? What does she do?

She teaches ballet at Michiru-sama's academy.

Ballet, how interesting! She must have received formal training since her childhood then—or did she actually do something else in the past? Saguru has heard that she went to Infinity like Tenoh Haruka.

Ah, yes, she was at Infinity once. But he doesn't know much about that—and he is only interested in the future and the present while Infinity was so long ago…

Just when Saguru tries to steer the conversation towards his girlfriend's chemical studies at Infinity, Seiya excuses himself to go home, claiming that in their relationship, Shiho is undoubtedly the one who wears the trousers and that he has promised her to give their apartment a good scrub before Kudo Shinichi's visit. Paying his cappuccino despite Chiba Mamoru's protests, he prepares to leave, pretending not to notice the small piece of paper the blonde waitress has discreetly tucked into a fold of his accordion case after pocketing her tip.

"I sincerely hope that you will visit us again some day." She smiles at him, her beautiful eyes overcast with sorrow at his departure.

"I will," he smiles back, giving her name tag a wondering glance. "Lucia Michelini? You have a pretty name!" The observation sounds honest but also perfectly spontaneous, almost unintentional, not even faintly evocative of a pick-up line or a flirt. Nevertheless, the waitress blushes deeply at his small display of attentiveness.

"Apropos names," Saguru breaks in. "What does your name mean? The light of a starfield. Or the light of a holy arrow?" Written in katakana, "Kou Seiya" can mean both.

"'Seiya' means 'starfield' or 'starry night,'" Seiya gloomily replies, proving Chiba Mamoru right. "My parents had always loved a starry night. Hence all of our names allude to it in some way." He raises from his chair and steps aside in one single movement, taking care not to touch either the pretty Lucia Michelini or Chiba Mamoru.

"Have a nice day," he says with a last smile, addressing Chiba, Saguru, and Signora Lucia Michelini at the same time. With that, he takes his old accordion and leaves. The waitress silently follows him to the door, gazing after his retreating figure in defeat.

"She has just given him her number although he hasn't even asked her for it," Saguru mutters in disbelief.

"You get accustomed to it with time," Chiba smirks. "But it doesn't endear him to you, does it?"

"Do you remember the name of the famous oil painting by Van Gogh?" Saguru asks, distracting himself from his frustration with the singer by returning to their previous topic. "The one with the cypress, the crescent moon, and Venus on it." Too lethargic and sleep-deprived to look it up, he might as well make use of this living encyclopedia sitting opposite him.

He doesn't know all of Van Gogh's paintings, Chiba Mamoru claims. Hasn't Van Gogh painted a lot of cypresses and even more crescent moons?

Tired of Chiba's evasive answers, Saguru succumbs to Google—a less emotional and certainly less biased informant—and finds only two paintings when he searches for "Van Gogh, Venus, crescent moon, and cypress." One is the famous "Road with Cypress and Star," and the other, which must be the painting Natalie means, as it depicts a crescent moon and several bright stars among swirling masses of clouds in the night sky, is the even more famous "The Starry Night."

Even though it doesn't prove anything, it doesn't make Seiya Kou seem more likable in Saguru's eyes.

x.


	24. Part Three: Promises...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Promises…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Promises, easy to make, are a pain to keep, and Shinichi is once again debating with himself whether he should give Mitsuhiko and Ayumi a call. What bothers him is neither the horrendous price for long-distance calls nor the time his triple life eats up but the problem of how to explain to them why Ai would call her friends from Shinichi's mobile phone or from a public phone box in Venice when she is supposed to be in New York at the moment. Tired of the charade and distracted by his latest case (in an aborted attempt to be vindicated in court, a former member of the Organization claimed that the seven crows hadn't committed suicide but were still controlling the members from afar), Shinichi forgot to tell Ayumi and Mitsuhiko about Ai's trip to Venice when he talked with them on the phone last Saturday.

Perhaps he will only send both Mitsuhiko and Ayumi a mail from his Haibara Ai mail address claiming that she has come down with a bad cold. If he is lucky and Ai—the real one—agrees to help him, he will never have to impersonate her again. Before going to Cannaregio, Shinichi has bought a new prepaid Sim card with internet access so that he can check his mails and do his online research without depending on Ran. Nevertheless, he has asked Ran to assist him so that she won't feel left out. After going shopping with Sonoko, she is going to comb Sonoko's collection of fanzines for information on Tenoh Haruka's former track rivals—notably all the second places and would-have-been champions if it hadn't been for Tenoh's uncanny speed. While it would have been easier to ask his father for help instead, Shinichi doesn't want to trouble him again while he is working on his next novel.

Since Kyogoku has driven his guest directly to Al Timon, the quintessential Venetian place of rendezvous with its floating terrace, where the locals like to snack on sunny days (Shinichi has lied to the karate champion that Carrara would be meeting him there), Shinichi has arrived in Cannaregio an hour earlier than planned. After drinking a cup of espresso, changing his passwords, and sending several messages to his informants (his mother, Takagi-keiji, and Megure-keibu), Shinichi decides to take a walk in the neighbourhood to sort out his feelings and to plan his next moves.

If it was true that Tenoh Akira didn't exist, the police must have found the remains of another man in Tomoe's laboratory. Either Jodie-san has lied to Shinichi—which he doesn't believe—or she doesn't know anything about it because the matter has been hushed up and she didn't deem it important enough to investigate.

Whoever separated the drawing on the watercolour card from "Tenoh Akira's" signature on the other side has not done it on a whim, as it must have been a tricky task even for someone with nimble fingers. Was it the signature or rather the drawing, which was so compromising that it had to be removed? "Tenoh Akira" must have existed at the time Infinity burned down, must have possessed a passport, official papers, a bank account, and maybe even a social life—the whole make-up of an identity—because Tenoh Haruka wouldn't have told the reporters about her brother's death at Infinity without being able to prove that he had existed in case an overeager journalist probed into the affair.

Passing several small boutiques, an old bookshop, and a few ancient bars and cafés, which are buzzing with people even in November, Shinichi tries to picture Ai walking among them sporting a wide-brimmed sun hat and dark sunglasses to protect her conspicuous hair and her sensitive eyes. Calmly evading the swarms of tourists around her, she drags her eccentric singer (who is dressed like a parrot this time) with her to her favourite boutique to admire a new handbag while he, like most men accompanying their girlfriends on shopping trips, is oscillating between being bored out of his mind and feeling so exhausted he is ready to drop. The image lacks authenticity, reminding Shinichi more of Sonoko and Kyogoku than of Ai and Seiya, so Shinichi soon gives it up for another, even more surreal one: The pair is sitting together under a red, white, or blue sunshade on a large terrace at Canal Grande, holding hands on the table while the sun is playing on the reflective patterns of her love bracelet and his ring. He is telling her an amusing anecdote (or even something inexcusably banal) while she is staring into his eyes in fascination just like Christine Daée was staring at the Phantom's shapely lips on the poster Shinichi saw at La Fenice…

Shuddering in horror, Shinichi kicks at an empty can on his way, sending it flying against a public trash bin. Even if the lunatic isn't her love interest, which he might be, Ai's fondness for Seiya is an obstacle Shinichi doesn't know how to remove. From the look of things, the singer is involved in the murder either as the main perpetrator or an accomplice, for he is the only person who could have cleaned the dressing room apart from Ai or Tenoh herself. In either case, Shinichi has yet to figure out how to pin Seiya down without hurting Ai in the process, especially since he will need her assistance to find out what drug the culprit used to poison Tenoh.

If it weren't for Ai's inexplicable attachment to Seiya and the undetectable poison, which is likely to be a modification of APAH, Shinichi would have staged a grand denouement at the scene of the crime (preferably in front of all the suspects) before asking Seiya why he has manipulated the other suspects and cleaned Tenoh's dressing room. In this case, however, Shinichi needs to be discreet and wait until he has found compelling evidence and guessed the motive which explains Seiya's interest in Tenoh's death before he can even think of informing Ai about his suspicion.

He is standing at the San Apostoli now, eyeing its plain vermillion facade, the more attractive domed exterior of the Corner Chapel on his right, and the famous Campanile on his left with mistrust. The San Apostoli, too, has been rebuilt, destroyed by a fire, and rebuilt again—not only once or twice but three times. The Campanile, the bell-tower of Venice, didn't fare better, having been burned, brought down by a storm, and collapsed into a giant heap of marble, brick, and wood. Like other famous buildings in Venice, it has been destroyed and resurrected—and will have to be rebuilt over and over again in the future.

If you put a whole city on a shaky foundation and hope that it will defy the scythe of time against all odds, you will have to put so much effort into maintaining it that the beauty is not worth the sacrifice, Shinichi thinks, refusing to buy into the romanticism Ran has fallen prey to. Memories are expensive to conserve. Only extremely affluent people can afford the luxury of keeping a property in Venice, and many of those people realize with time that they can get much more for their money in other cities than here. As enchanting as it is, Venice is pleasant for a short stay but not the right place to spend the rest of your life—just like Seiya Kou is not the right partner for a lasting relationship. But then again—says the Haibara Ai in Shinichi's mind with her infuriatingly serene smile—neither are you or I…

x.

Checking his mailboxes one last time before visiting Seiya and Ai, Shinichi finds two new mails, one from Ran and one from Mitsuhiko. Ran, who has postponed shopping to help her mystery freak, has sent Shinichi her findings in a report, as he has asked her not to call him during his investigation unless it is urgent.

"Elza Gray, an American student, became Shirabaka High's fastest athlete after Tenoh-san stopped running to focus on her motocross races. Gray-san always won second place when Tenoh-sama was at Shirabaka. After Tenoh-sama left, Elza Gray won all the medals available. The athletes of our high school have always lost to her as well."

On the motocross track, Tenoh Haruka's strongest rival was Yamada Katsutoshi, who was famous for being an aggressive driver. But Ran doesn't know anything about him except that he disappeared just when Tenoh-san quit racing and began to play the piano in earnest. Yamada-san was declared missing soon afterwards and hasn't been seen ever since. Also, a rumour spread that Tenoh-sama had killed him and quit racing out of guilt. Of course it was "ridiculous because Tenoh-sama always won by a wide margin" and it was common knowledge in racing circles that "his sexist and homophobic fans often tried to harass her."

"Many of them spent months in hospital with fractured limbs, and some even tried to sue her although she was usually alone when they attacked her in groups. She was a legend and had never lost a fight. What an awesome woman!

PS: Why do you always have to hide everything from me? I won't ever forgive you for not telling me about Tenoh-sama's real sex!"

Doing her research more thoroughly than he expected her to, Ran has not only looked into Tenoh's racing career but also into her past as an athlete. It was inevitable that Ran discovered Tenoh's real sex when she learned that the ex-athlete and -racer once participated in the girl's competitions. At this pace, his industrious Watson is going to stumble over Miyano Shiho before Shinichi can wrap up this case. Anyhow, a missing racer and a few burned human remains at Infinity fit too well into the same narrative to be dismissed, and Shinichi quickly sends a new message to Megure-keibu, asking him about the details of the Yamada Katsutoshi case.

Mitsuhiko's mail, short and less informative, is not less interesting than Ran's, as it proves to Shinichi that Tenoh already knew about the effect of APTX4869 on Ai before the downfall of the Organization. He has just heard that Tenoh-san passed away last night—Mitsuhiko wrote—and he is extremely sorry to hear about Ai's loss. "Is that the reason why you haven't called me yet? Your cousin was such a nice woman."

x.

We saw her at Ichinohashi Park, don't you remember, Mitsuhiko asks the fake Ai on the phone. She and her friend, the pretty lady with the strange turquoise hair, bought the two of us ice cream. Conan-kun, Ayumi-chan, and Genta-kun were away on the school trip with the whole class. We two were recovering from a flu, and I suggested that we take a walk together because you once said we needed more vitamin D to toughen up…

Why do the boys with the highest boy soprano always end up having the deepest, huskiest bass during their puberty, Shinichi wonders, unable to get accustomed to Mitsuhiko's new voice. Adjusting his voice-changing bow tie to imitate Ai's real voice more accurately (being the perfectionist he is, Shinichi can't tolerate the small incongruity in the voice he chose before he saw her again), he rubs his temples and smiles like she did last night to get into his role.

"My memory is terrible these days," "Ai" complains. "I think I don't get enough sleep. I fear you'll have to repeat everything to me before I can remember it."

She shouldn't work so hard, Mitsuhiko advises her. She has always spent too much time indoors. Her impromptu holiday in Italy will do her good. "But," he adds with a shy laugh, "I still think that I must come to your school as soon as possible to take care of you."

Scandalized by the boy's newfound boldness and saddened by the tragedy of the impossible love he has unintentionally encouraged, Shinichi makes a mental note to tell Ai to let Mitsuhiko down gently before the boy can put his words into action.

Ai looked surprised—almost shocked—at meeting her handsome "cousin" again because Tenoh-san had changed so much compared to the last time she saw her, Mitsuhiko continues. (Since Shinichi could see on the Infinity photo that Tenoh Haruka had not changed much, this was just a lie Ai had to make up on the spot.) Tenoh-san looked like a man with her short hair, flat chest, and long limbs, and even used the male pronoun "boku" for herself. Mitsuhiko would have liked to tell the others about Ai's cousin when he learned that Tenoh-san was a famous racer once. But he liked Ai's idea that Ai's cousin and their walk in the park should be a secret between the two of them so much that he didn't tell anyone.

As Shinichi suspected, Ai has hidden her connection to Tenoh Haruka from him (even made use of Mitsuhiko's infatuation with her to protect her secret), preferring to deal with whatever troubles she had by herself. Was Tenoh a friend or an enemy, or a bit of both? She must have been an ally, who saved Ai at Pandora's Box, as Shinichi can't imagine how Ai, weakened by her injury and stuck in her child form, could have survived the storm on her own.

Tenoh Haruka didn't manage to save Hattori, however… And as the image of the "distant ruler of heaven," who was known to have fought her opponents with unwavering harshness, once again materializes in front of his inner eye, Shinichi is struck by the thought that Hattori might not have been washed against the rocks during the storm as he thought but had been rendered unconscious, thrown off a motorboat, and left to drown.

x.


	25. Part Three: As he feared...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**As he feared…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

As he feared, reporters, paparazzi, and lovesick fans are already besieging the main entrance to Michiru-sama's academy, forming a massive human wall he can't scale, and Seiya is forced to admit defeat when he spots his blonde nightmare of an admirer Nadia Gorowitz perching under the window of his studio with her smartphone in her hand. If he had to get into the studio at any cost, he could knock her out, climb through the window, get changed, and run home before the reporters discover the unconscious girl. Seiya usually doesn't attack his fans, however (the paparazzi he knocked out when he was sixteen were exceptions to the rule, as they would gladly have ruined Odango's reputation and her relationship with Mamoru-san for an exclusive shot). So Seiya only totters past the crowd with his simulated stoop, hiding the bouquet of flowers and the box of zabaglione behind his wide leather jacket, and breathes a sigh of relief when he escapes into the Piazza di San Marco unseen.

Now he will have to carry the accordion home instead of bringing it to the studio as planned. The change doesn't bother Seiya, as he is accustomed to improvising. He has also told Hakuba Saguru about the meaning of his name as if his own parents didn't attach much significance to it. But Seiya doesn't fight losing battles and doesn't see the need to hide something from Hakuba which the detective will discover sooner or later.

For a detective of Kudo's caliber, guessing that Seiya has messed with the time is certainly a breeze. That said, what can happen to Seiya, anyway? The case will soon be closed for lack of compelling evidence. Hakuba will confront him about the falcon some day, whereupon Seiya will tell him that he didn't shoot it—an honest answer the detective will have to content himself with. Unless Kudo and Hakuba snoop around in political circles and get themselves into serious trouble with the result that Seiya will have to save their necks for Shiho's sake (a delight Seiya would rather forgo, as busy as he is at the moment), absolutely nothing remarkable will happen.

Seiya's greatest problem right now is the packet of APAH he has lost. But since the most logical explanation is that someone has picked it up in the hope of finding a few cigarettes and then tossed it away in disappointment (or taken the harmless painkillers if they are addicted to drugs), Seiya doesn't worry about it too much.

In a showcase behind the display window to his left, a familiar pair of rings catch his attention. They belong to the same collection as Shiho's love bracelet, and Seiya usually wears his whenever he is not in disguise. The last time he tried to slip hers on her finger (with the joke that she might as well wear the wedding band now that they're living in an "everything but marriage" arrangement), however, Shiho ran for the hills. Out of all places, she chose to stay in Haruka-san's apartment afterwards. And it took him a whole week to get her back, much to Haruka-san's sneering amusement.

Not everything Seiya told Hakuba Saguru was a lie. While Seiya is actually tidy and organized (touring around with an explosive agent and two hypersensitive perfectionists like Yaten and Taiki has prepared him for Shiho's neurotic sense of order), Shiho did leave him more than once during the first months of cohabitation for the tiniest of reasons or even for no reason at all. If he had been less confident, Seiya would have drawn the inevitable conclusion that she simply didn't love him enough to live with him in a marriage-like relationship. But whenever she returned, he could feel the same longing in her embrace coupled with the same weary resignation which already staggered him the first time she bailed. Hence it didn't take him long to be sure that Shiho must be guarding a dark secret, which only Haruka-san (and Michiru-sama?) know.

As long as Shiho doesn't voluntarily open up to him, Seiya tries not to pry into her past. Even so, he suspects that her life as a codename member and leading scientist of the Organization was a good deal more sordid than what she wants a lover to know. More than once he has dropped hints that nothing she did—not even testing poisons on innocent victims or on other Black Organization members (enemies, rivals, just plain annoying colleagues?)—could change his notion of the person she is now. From time to time, she would let her guard down and confess to him that she once did terrible things. But before he could assure her that it was all right and that he likes her with all her past and present faults, she would clam up and turn away. As always, he would end up kissing her in silence (as words would have been deflected by that invincible armour of hers), they would make love as if it was the very last time in their lives, and then she would sleep on it and forget about her worries on the following day…

…And then Haruka-san—with her meaningful smiles and her ambiguous words—would sweep into their delightful twosome solitude and ask Shiho out for a cup of coffee whenever he was rehearsing. Shiho would always accept the invitation, sometimes with an eagerness which puzzled Seiya, who couldn't make sense of their odd friendship. No doubt Haruka-san was Shiho's confidante, he thought, and it never occurred to him that Haruka-san could have been blackmailing Shiho behind his back before he saw the Sherlock Holmes painting in Haruka-san's dressing room and overheard their talk in Mestre.

Before he took the sofa from Haruka-san, Seiya believed that like most people with a guilty secret, Shiho needed a good friend to lend her an ear. But whenever Haruka-san brought her back from their friendly date, Shiho would retreat into her shell and lock Seiya out of it, moving away from him as if she was no longer sure of their relationship. Sometimes, he would catch her distant gaze on him, which felt like the look of a complete stranger in its anonymous, impersonal gentleness. Then he would know that he had to fight for their relationship once again as if they had just met, for she was debating with herself whether being with him was worth the demons she had to battle when they were together.

Haruka-san, on the other hand, would drop poisonous hints to Seiya about how Shiho was still wearing her necklace because Kudo Shinichi had always been the one Shiho really wanted, that she was only with Seiya out of convenience and because she couldn't resist his famous charm when she was lonely and vulnerable, that her love for him was just the love of a fan for an idol, based on superficial physical attraction and her own desire to be loved. Hurt by Haruka-san's influence on Shiho (less by the silly talk about Kudo being Shiho's true love but more by the realization that Haruka-san was able to alienate Shiho from him within only a few hours), Seiya would distract himself with work and wait, meanwhile turning on his charm even more to keep Shiho by his side, as he knew from past experience that any attempt at talking with his girlfriend would cause her to retreat even further.

x.

The ponderous pigeons, accustomed to being fed by tourists, don't even try to flee from Seiya as he is strolling along the Doge Palace towards the lagoon. Sidestepping each of them so that he won't hurt one by accident, Seiya congratulates himself for having visited Michiru-sama before buying the flowers and the cake, as it would have been a pain to carry the stuff while running to and fro between opposite ends of Cannaregio.

Seiya knows for sure that he will come in time for lunch even though he is not wearing a watch. How funny that Hakuba Saguru tried to shock him by asking him whether he was carrying a pocket metronome around! Seiya has never needed a metronome with his ability to pick up a beat and keep it as long as he wants, altering the pace at his will to return to the right tempo after minutes or even hours without the help of an instrument or a metronome. His musical memory and his sense of rhythm are all he needs. The sight or the sound of two successive movements of the seconds hand on a clock's dial are enough to provide him with the exact tempo to keep track of time for hours. How anyone could prove this in front of a judge, Seiya doesn't know…

Seiya's arrogance, his happy-go-lucky attitude, and his lack of foresight will be his death, Taiki once predicted. Perhaps Taiki is right. But until then, Seiya is going to enjoy his life.

Among the white columns of the Doge Palace—yellowed by age but still extremely imposing in its old-fashioned beauty even in the harsh light of the midday sun—are two pink ones, which are said to mark the spot where the doge once used to stand during ceremonies—the place where death sentences were announced to the crowd below. "I've seen you, but I'm not going to tell the police the exact time when you came back to La Fenice last night," the letter he found in their mailbox this morning said. "Have you ever wondered how a death sentence could affect the loved ones of a criminal? I'm going to visit you in your dressing room tomorrow before the musical. Please don't complicate things by running away. Don't worry, I only want to be your friend. Nadia."

The woman doesn't know anything about capital punishment and sucks at delivering threats just as she seriously sucks at wooing an unwilling object of desire! Is this supposed to be blackmail, Seiya wonders, or is it only a clumsy and rather creepy way to approach him? He has made the acquaintance of enough infatuated people to know that some of them confuse love with hate on a regular basis. Passing the pink columns without sparing them a second glance, Seiya decides to rip apart the letter in his pocket when he passes the next trash bin.

Mentally listing the positive things to dilute the negative ones, Seiya thanks his lucky stars (or maybe even Gorowitz's stalking skills) that Shiho didn't empty their mailbox before he did, as he is an early riser whereas she likes to sleep in. The weather is glorious, almost summery, with exactly the right amount of cloud in the sky to create Shiho's favourite type of early sunset. Seiya learned the part of the Phantom years ago (at Haruka-san's suggestion) so that he didn't have to study much but can still sing it in his sleep. (If it weren't for this lucky coincidence, he would be in deep trouble tonight, considering how much time Haruka-san and his stalkers have stolen from him.) This afternoon, they are going to have tea with Kudo and enjoy Makoto-chan's zabaglione—one of Makoto-chan's specialties. And to top everything on the list: it didn't escape Seiya's attention that Shiho immediately caught on the topic of marriage last night. At this thought, the last speck of cloud lifts from his mind.

Both Shiho and he are independent people, who dread the idea of being tied down by the tyrannical shackles of bureaucracy society imposes on individuals behind the lies of legitimacy and romance. Nevertheless, marriage is in this part of the world no longer the one-way trap it used to be. Without drawing up a spoken or written contract (neither of them felt the need to do it), Seiya and Shiho are already sharing everything—not only a bed as Rei-chan so brazenly blurted out at La Fenice but also an apartment, their finances, and their everyday life. Now that Haruka-san has made their relationship public, there is no sense in hiding it. A marriage, as mundane as it is, would ease Shiho's life by protecting her from the malicious gossip all of his supposed affairs had to endure.

Seiya won't ever try to talk Shiho into marrying him against her better judgement, especially not after her depressing reaction to the ring he gave her. (Back then, his ego suffered a severe blow, from which it never really recovered.) But if she should feel the wish to tie the knot out of practical or even sentimental reasons (Shiho is able to transform from the pragmatic woman who can make the most of an extremely limited budget to the incurable romantic who asks him to walk with her along the canals of Venice during sunset within a second), Seiya will happily run with her to the next municipal office (the dreaded paperwork be damned!) to seal the deal.

Perhaps he shouldn't be too greedy and push his luck, Seiya concedes, giving up the illusion. Although a part of him does fit his public image of the loner who never really commits and who will be happy with or without a woman by his side, another part of him has always been pursuing the romantic ideal of sharing the rest of his life with a lover who voluntarily sticks by him despite knowing his family background. A ring would just be an ostentatious display of a relationship which is as close to perfection as he could ever have imagined—their personal happiness, which has been ruthlessly endangered by Haruka-san's grand scheme. Although Seiya knows that he loves Shiho far more than she loves him, as he would never have left her, whatever the circumstances, he is content with the relationship they have. Therefore, when he passes another jeweller's and spots a love necklace in the display window which dwarfs the one Kudo gave her in both beauty and elegance, Seiya doesn't buy it for Shiho as planned.

Everyone has the right to cling to the memories of a hopeless love, however satisfying their present relationship is, Seiya thinks, beholding the vintage pendant with a pang of remorse. He, too, won't ever try to blot out the memories of the two women he loved before he met her. Giving Shiho the necklace now after carelessly revealing to her that he was irritated by the sight of Kudo's present would be the same as asking her to let go of the past for the sake of their relationship. The gesture would be egocentric and petty, even cruel in a sleazy way—and sooner or later, he would hate himself for it.

In contrast to his reputation (which Haruka-san wrecked in another of her hilarious attempts to be helpful), Seiya does have rather high standards of decent behaviour, which he effortlessly upholds as long as he is not driven into a corner by external circumstances. Otherwise he wouldn't have felt so sorry for the timid usher he flirted with last night that he refrained from messing with her watch as he initially intended to. In the end, all he needed to say was "I can't believe it's already sixteen past eight" and distract her with the autograph on her arm so that she couldn't look at her watch at that very moment. If it should come to an inquest, which Seiya doubts, Alessandra could console herself with the thought that he only made a mistake but didn't use her like he used Gentile.

Climbing into his motorboat, which Alberto Coiro—one of Haruka-san's former informants—has brought him, Seiya shrugs off the worries Michiru-sama has tried to instill in him this morning for fear that he will get himself into trouble with his reckless attitude. Hakuba Saguru and Kudo Shinichi can investigate as much as they want—checking watches, stopping time, bombarding his friends with questions, searching his apartment in vain… There is absolutely nothing they can prove, Seiya realizes, distractedly smiling at a girl who has just ignored the chatter of her boyfriend to gaze after him. He is almost curious about how Kudo is going to solve a case without any conclusive evidence, a bunch of uncooperative witnesses, and an opponent who doesn't fear anything.

x.

* * *

 

A/N.: A cookie for everyone who noticed that Seiya's studio actually does have a window.


	26. Part Three: The sun is already...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**The sun is already…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

The sun is already high in the sky when Shiho opens her eyes. Cocooned in the soporific warmth of two blankets, facing the sunlight filtering in through the half-closed slats of the wooden Venetian blinds, she sleepily registers that she is alone. Seiya is gone, either training at the barre in his studio on the top floor of the academy or practising in his soundproof room, where he keeps his guitars and drums. Being with a musician and actor entails sharing him with his job for sixteen hours a day.

Falling into a light sleep interspersed with bizarre dreams and half-waking moments, Shiho wonders whether Kudo was right that she has become too dependent. After giving him the watercolour card, she has become more tranquil when it comes to her past, floating on a cloud of devil-may-care insouciance despite knowing that her house of cards can crash down on her at any time. She knows that this is the proverbial calm before the storm—the fearlessness of a woman who has done all she could do and who is now awaiting her fate without being able to do much about it.

One day, a letter addressed to Seiya will be either intercepted and destroyed by her or (if she doesn't succeed) be read by him, which will be the end of their relationship. Refusing to play Tenoh-san's game, Shiho doesn't ask her boyfriend to change his number or to give her his key to their mailbox. The next logical step would be to separate him from all his friends and acquaintances, his agent, and even his brothers—hiding him from the world so that no informant can deliver the letter to him. Once one has succumbed to paranoia, the obsessive behaviour will be difficult to stop. Repulsed by the thought of such pathological conduct and tired of the despondency trap she fell into every time Tenoh-san threatened to inform Seiya about her past, Shiho obstinately continues to pretend that this relationship isn't dangling on a thin thread, hinging on chance with the odds stacked against her.

Images of Tenoh-san, whirling around Shiho's head in every of her more realistic dreams (the dreams with a recognizable plot) are invariably set against the background of one of the bars or clubs in San Margherita, where Shiho and Tenoh-san used to meet during Seiya's rehearsals. Tenoh-san will, invariably, wear blue jeans and a soft cotton shirt or a knitted pullover—comfortable clothing, which doesn't suit her abrasive manners and driven character. In the same way, she will always order an Earl Grey, a green tea, an espresso with milk and sugar, or even a spritz al bitter, depending on the time of the day. They will have an animated, friendly chat, which Shiho greatly enjoys, until Tenoh-san abruptly drops the role of the charming conversationalist for the role of the obnoxious moralist and urges Shiho to "do the right thing" just for the sake of doing it…

x.

"Tough luck, but the lady already has a date for tonight!"

Throwing her arm proprietorially around Shiho's waist, Tenoh-san smirked at the black-haired man in a grey wool and silk-blend suit, who was about to approach Shiho with the familiar bashful half-smile of blossoming infatuation. Shiho's natural inclination was to shake off Tenoh-san's impertinent arm, but, recalling what happened the last time she unknowingly encouraged someone's (Luigi Gentile's) interest in her, she deliberately suppressed the impulse for fear that the stranger could misread the gesture.

Embarrassed, the young man stammered an unintelligible apology and retreated, returning to his friends, who showered him with utterances of consolation. Shiho rolled her eyes at her companion, who took it as a cue to let go of her waist. Later, when Tenoh-san and Shiho had left the bar to settle comfortably into their chairs in a rear corner of the club, Tenoh-san directed her smirk, which slowly transformed into an irresistible smile, at the waitress who took their order.

Shiho's new admirer darted longing glances in the direction of their table, which Tenoh-san, whose attentiveness rivalled Shiho's, answered with a threatening frown.

"I can take care of myself, thank you very much," Shiho remarked after the waitress had left. "That was uncalled for!"

"No, you can't. I've left you alone for two minutes and you've already racked up broken hearts for a new record."

"Nonsense. You're projecting."

Tenoh-san's spritz al bitter and Shiho's Blue Lagoon mocktail arrived seconds later (the uncommon warmth and the lightning speed at which they were served made Shiho suspect that, once again, a waitress had fallen for Tenoh-san's husky voice and her masculine looks). Now they were stirring their drinks in contentment, watching the candle throwing flickering shadows on the blue vase on their table, from which a single pink rose with two perfect leaves was raising its head, looking evocative of a dancing girl.

"What would your boyfriend say if I told him that you date his handsome friends and flirt with dark, elegant strangers during his absence, koneko-chan?" Tenoh-san beamed at Shiho, sipped at her spritz al bitter, and wrinkled her beautiful nose in distaste. "Too much soda this time. If this happens again, I'm going to shoot the bartender!"

"You know him. He is never jealous," Shiho shrugged, failing to mention that Seiya flirted with anything that moved just for the fun of it. "He firmly believes that he is the nicest and most attractive guy on earth and that I'm smart enough to stay with him."

"The kid is right, alas," Tenoh-san laughed, "that is, if one doesn't count me since I'm, strictly speaking, not a guy." She leaned in, stared seductively into Shiho's eyes, and lovingly stroked Shiho's chin. "What about passing your nights with me until he comes back?" she whispered. "I bet you're going to enjoy it."

"Stop messing around!" Shiho drew away after giving Tenoh-san's hand a slap. "Your jokes are getting us into trouble, especially when you make them in the academy in front of my students. Kaioh-san is going to misunderstand."

Tenoh-san's flirtatious behaviour and their regular meetings had given rise to speculations about the nature of their relationship. Despite her angelic patience, Kaioh-san had begun to look hurt whenever she overheard the gossips of the dancers at the academy.

"Don't worry," Tenoh-san chuckled, turning her attention to her spritz, whose orange and reddish-brown colour glimmered like fire opal and amber whenever the light of the candle played on it. "As much as I love to look at you, I'll never like you enough to leave Michiru."

"I'm not afraid of you but of Kaioh-san. I wouldn't be surprised if she cracked up and murdered you in your sleep. Honestly, I don't know how she could put up with you for so many years."

"Love," Tenoh-san answered, taking Kaioh-san's understanding for granted. A breeze from the open door ruffled her short blonde waves, and she turned her face towards it in enjoyment. It was one of the few moments in which she looked happy and relaxed, taking in the clear summer night without brooding about anything.

For a half an hour, they chatted about the books they had read, about the music Tenoh-san had recommended Shiho, about Hotaru-chan's first violin recital, which was a success, and about Meioh-san's latest monograph on black holes, about which she wanted to hear Shiho's opinion. They also discussed Kudo's latest case, which Tenoh-san had heard about in the Japanese news. And Shiho showed Tenoh-san her new mobile phone, which was perpetually on airplane mode and which she only used to read e-books, as she was too paranoid to use it for messages and phone calls.

Shiho's Blue Lagoon, cooled with more ice cubes than necessary, was the same shade of blue as Seiya's eyes, and Shiho wondered for a moment whether he was still working or practising when she remembered the time difference between New York and Venice. They had already emptied three quarters of their glasses, leaving only a few drops of their drinks, the ice cubes, and garnish, before Tenoh-san reached out and touched Shiho's hand, giving her a boyish grin.

"Something is bothering you tonight," she observed. "Unless it's the sort of spiritual longing which even a drop-dead-gorgeous butch like me can't satisfy, you should just dump it on me and watch me solve it for you."

The night was too pleasant to destroy it with arguments and accusations. Still, Shiho knew she had to address the issue sooner or later. Drinking up her Blue Lagoon, she delved into her pocket and brought out the small trading card—the cause of her sleepless nights since Seiya went to New York two weeks ago.

"Look what I've found in Seiya's jacket," she said, and placed it on the table. She had been ransacking his pockets for new tissues when she discovered the small print of "The Starry Night." Having paid attention to her art classes at Infinity, it didn't take her long to see the parallel between the painting and Seiya's name. At first, she believed it to be one of his quirky ideas or even one of Yaten-san's cards, as "Night Sky" would have been a fitting name for the painting as well. But after seeing a similar card in the pocket of a robber Seiya had knocked out during the same evening and noticing that Seiya ignored it (in order to hide it from her?), she knew that the card meant trouble.

There was a flicker of recognition in Tenoh-san's eyes before they met Shiho's gaze and turned unreadable.

"I haven't talked to Seiya about it yet," Shiho added. "I wanted to hear your opinion first." Despite her rising anger, she deliberately refrained from saying "your excuse", as she knew that "Tenoh-sama" could get up and leave at any moment without giving her an explanation.

"Nice painting," Tenoh-san remarked after another sip of her spritz. "Too bad the original is not for sale—although I'm sure that like everything else by Van Gogh, it'd be hopelessly overpriced nowadays." She took the card into her hand, studying the painting with the attentive eyes of a connoisseur. "I can't really understand the hype about it, though. I like the brush strokes, but the colour palette isn't as great as all the Van Gogh lovers claim." After emptying her spritz, she held the card against the candlelight, making Shiho wonder whether she was going to burn it. "The glaring yellows in the sky hurt my eyes. Maybe it's just the print, but Michiru would say that these shades of blue don't complement these shades of yellow well. Van Gogh himself wasn't satisfied with it either. And I don't think that it would have become so famous if it hadn't been for his gruesome death." She returned the card to Shiho, who placed it on the table between them. "Did you know that he painted it in an asylum? I wish he had included the iron bars in front of his window."

Having heard the background story of "The Starry Night" at Infinity, Shiho wasn't in the least interested in brushing up on her knowledge of art history.

"Knowing your yellow Ferrari, I'd have expected another comment from you." She sighed in frustration, realizing that this was going to be more difficult than she had hoped. "There's no accounting for taste. _Someone_ made over forty million euro last month just by showing this card to a well-heeled person, who is usually not in the least interested in post-Renaissance art."

"Impressive! That 'someone' leads a rather extravagant lifestyle," Tenoh-san darkly observed. "Or they have many affairs, who have a plenty of expensive hobbies. At least you can be sure that it's not your boyfriend. I give him enough credit to expect him to share the profit with you instead of letting you live on the crumbs you earn with your odd jobs. It's a shame that you still refuse to be paid for what you've done for Hotaru-chan—although I doubt that all money in the world could have rewarded you for your work."

No longer certain about her deduction in light of Tenoh-san's innocent face, Shiho decided to stop beating about the bush to lure her out of her reserve.

"I fear the person we're talking about is not only extravagant but also a hopeless idealist, who thinks that they need all the resources they can get in order to save the world."

Tenoh-san frowned, leaned back in her chair, and crossed her arms.

"Who told Seiya about the blackmail?" She raised her perfectly arched brow. "Alberto Coiro? I'm starting to believe I'm the only person who is immune to your boyfriend. Even my male—and straight!—informants change sides after they get to know him."

"I don't know," Shiho lied, as she had talked to Coiro before coming here. "It doesn't matter who gave it to him. The one who made these cards and distributes them among the people on the list is the person I have a problem with."

"It's always the same with the people you trust. Sooner or later, they're going to stab you in the back." Tenoh-san distractedly poked at the orange zest twist in her glass with her spoon. "That's it. You can tell Coiro he is fired as of now."

"He is only worried about you. Why are you doing this?" Since Tenoh-san didn't react, Shiho gave her shoe a slight kick under the table. "They've lost, we've won, you've already got your revenge—so just let go!"

Tenoh-san smiled. An enigmatic, joyless smile with a tinge of indulgent self-pity.

"It's never over," she soberly said, her smile replaced by an air of decisiveness which sent a chill through Shiho, who realized that the short spell of peace in her life was over and might never return. "The world, as it is now, is in need of dramatic improvement."

"And why do you think that it's your mission to save it?"

"Whose mission is it, then?" Wasn't Kudo's aspiration for saving the world one of the things which impressed Shiho most about her detective, Tenoh-san asked. Humankind would have died out long ago without the few people who dedicated their lives to improving it—although "improvement" was, admittedly, an overly optimistic use of vocabulary.

"There's a world of difference between you and him. Kudo isn't the type to sell his own grandmother to achieve what he wants," Shiho sharply returned. "He has a very strong sense of integrity."

"That's exactly what makes him so ineffective," Tenoh-san commented, taking another sip of her spritz. "Solving individual crimes and serving the present judicial system doesn't change anything about the whole picture."

"This sounds awfully familiar. I've heard all these things before—from the people you despised."

"The truth is the same no matter from whose mouth it comes. There is only one truth, your detective would say."

Unable to figure out how to stop Tenoh-san, who was set to self-destruct and pull others down with her, Shiho helplessly buried her forehead in her palms.

"There is a problem with this, though," Tenoh-san continued. "Seiya is in danger. Not that it's something new since Pandora's Box, but the degree of threat has certainly shot up."

"And whose fault is it?" Shiho snapped, enraged by Tenoh-san's hypocrisy. "This is the worst you could have done to him apart from killing him yourself."

Tenoh-san gave her a blank look.

"It wasn't me, if that's what you believe."

Bewildered, Shiho thought for a moment about the possibility that Tenoh-san's simple statement was true and decided to consider it, albeit hesitantly. If their previous talk was an example of miscommunication and Tenoh-san had been talking about her general principles while Shiho was solely focussed on the trading card, they had to start anew.

"Coiro swears that it was you." Shiho cast her mind back to her conversation with Tenoh-san's Venetian informant, who took care of Seiya's boat from time to time and updated him on the overall situation in Italy in exchange for free singing lessons. Although she couldn't afford to rule anyone out, she believed the talented street musician to be one of the more trustworthy and loyal people who wouldn't ever sell their ideals and their allies for money.

"So it's his word against mine. Whose do you trust?" Tenoh-san's eyes narrowed.

"If it was really not you, we'll have to look into this," Shiho frowned, "since whoever did this must be one of your people." If Tenoh-san was really innocent, there must be a traitor among them—Shiho surmised—and Tenoh-san had an inkling of who it was when she saw the trading card. Nevertheless, Shiho knew that it was no use probing into Tenoh-san if she didn't want to reveal the name to her. The only solution was to continue investigating by herself and trust Tenoh-san to do whatever it took to fix their problem.

"The last years were too good to be true," Shiho admitted in resignation. "I thought they've already forgotten about him."

"They haven't, and they never will," Tenoh-san gave a dry, humourless laugh. "Paranoia is always more powerful than conscience. One day, a big name will wake up from a nightmare and realize that Seiya can ruin everything they're living for within the blink of an eye." She smiled at the waitress, who passed their table, and ordered a non-alcoholic Yellow Bird for Shiho and a second spritz al bitter (with a spoonful less soda than her previous spritz) for herself.

"Let's be realistic about this, koneko-chan, as unpleasant as it is," she gently told Shiho, who remained silent following her gloomy predictions, after the waitress had left. "If they weren't afraid of the aftermath Seiya prepared for an assassination, they'd have got rid of him and his brothers long ago."

x.

"We could make the most of this predicament and use the backup plan we had for the scenario that everything at Pandora's Box went wrong," Tenoh-san suggested after receiving her second glass of spritz, as Shiho didn't take her bait and reply.

Shiho, who had been raising her white-and-lavender striped drinking straw to her lips, stopped abruptly in the middle of the movement.

"That was _then_ —I'm not even thinking of doing it now!"

It didn't take much to trigger memories of Pandora's Box. And one mental image would always prompt another, for recollections—shy but gregarious creatures—had the tendency to visit Shiho in groups. She lingered for a moment over the memory of Kudo's hands dressing her fresh wound, the sight of the retreating motorboat in the falling dusk, and his promise to return in time…

She was relieved that he couldn't.

 _What tha hell 's tis s'pposed ta be?_ Hattori Heiji had been yelling at her against the sound of the crashing waves, pointing at the black cookie box in his hand in disbelief. _Tha real Pandora's Box? Ya must be kiddin' me!_

"Love can be measured by the amount of sacrifice you're willing to make for it," Tenoh-san, who had traded charm for obnoxiousness in the meantime, declared. "When it came to Kudo's safety, you didn't even hesitate. Now you're only thinking of yourself. This love of yours is completely, unapologetically, selfish."

Whenever she was in a black mood, Tenoh-san couldn't refrain from making disparaging comments about Shiho and Seiya's "love-at-first-sight-thing", as she called it—as if she felt personally threatened by the idea that love, however strong, could end or change. Notwithstanding her many past flings and her intense platonic love for Chiba-san's wife, Tenoh-san believed in never-ending true love, which was limited to only one partner in the world. A preposterous concept, which Shiho could only understand if she took into consideration Tenoh-san's peculiar relationship with Kaioh-san, whose unswerving loyalty and limitless capacity for forgiveness bordered on masochistic self-denial.

"Back then, the situation was different." Shiho nonchalantly sipped her Yellow Bird, whose sweet fruity taste she used to enjoy but no longer does now. The background music, a melodramatic soprano howl accompanied by the usual pulsating bass, was also grating on her nerves. "Kudo only got a chance to live in peace after I left. Seiya, on the other hand, will be in danger with or without me."

"Are you sure?" Tenoh-san fixed her with dark teal eyes, whose turquoise and sea-green specks looked almost hazel in the amber light. Since they had the same eye colour, Shiho, whose mind was wandering, pondered whether her own eyes had turned hazel as well. "What has become of your emphatic 'I need to stay inconspicuous so that no former member of the Organization will recognize me'?"

"That was before I learned about Seiya's family. Nothing can be worse than that. I can't fret about a minor problem when I have an enormous one to worry about."

Shiho cursed herself for mentioning his family background. But to her surprise, Tenoh-san didn't leap at the chance to deliver a sermon.

"Do you want to say that you do love him enough to leave him if the situation calls for it?" Preoccupied by her own thoughts, Tenoh-san didn't care that the trap was so transparent it insulted Shiho's intelligence.

"No, I love him enough to stay. Leaving was a mistake. Instead of helping either of us, it only made both of us miserable."

"Do you know why he's staying in New York longer than usual?" Tenoh-san, who had abruptly changed the topic, began to pluck the thorns off the rose in the peacock-blue vase while studying Shiho with thoughtful eyes brightened by a glint of victory.

"He says Taiki-san needs help with the new screenplay." Shiho flashed her an irritated look. Tenoh-san had just twisted the knife in the wound, as Seiya usually flew home as soon as he could but didn't seem eager to return to her this time. "If you want to imply that he has started an affair there, I'll tell you beforehand that I don't believe you."

"There is no affair, at least no romantic one." Tenoh-san pursed her lips in distaste. "No, we both know that he isn't likely to have affairs—he doesn't have the time to." Joggling her spritz so that the ice cubes clinked against each other in a cheerful rhythm, she paused for effect. "He was attacked by a group of men on the way to his brothers' studio, so I heard from an informant," she continued in a more serious tone. "No injuries, at least not on himself, since both Taiki and Yaten, who weren't in the best of moods after the bad morning practice session, were in the vicinity. I think Seiya needs a few days to nurse his attackers and grill them about their client's names before he can return to you and pretend that everything is fine."

She would strangle him with his own hair when he came back, Shiho murmured, taken aback by the fact that she hadn't suspected anything despite having lived with him for so long. Seiya had sounded perfectly natural on the phone, telling her anecdotes of the theatre and mocking Yaten-san's giant collection of cosmetics, which drove Taiki-san insane because his narcissistic older brother would monopolize their bathroom for at least an hour every time he visited it.

"Maybe you're right that he will be in danger with or without you," Tenoh-san poked at the artist trading card on the table with her long, slender fingers. "But you can't deny that you make him more vulnerable and that he has to pass up great chances to be with you."

"What has he passed up?" Shiho, who had begun to feel faint, shoved her mocktail away.

"There have been extremely lucrative offers from many different film studios. Hasn't he told you about them?" After a pause to let the information sink in, Tenoh-san continued in a softer tone, "In Shizuka-san's opinion, you're stealing a once-in-a-generation talent from the public by chaining him to you. Seiya has to stay away from anything which separates him from you for too long or puts you under the spotlight. The last thing he did for you was rejecting Hollywood and Broadway in favour of a few lousy underpaid weeks at La Fenice."

"I don't know anything about it." Shiho retrieved her Yellow Bird to crush both her slice of orange and her spiral of lime garnish with her spoon, ready to kill Tenoh-san for telling her the truth and Seiya for telling her lies. "He told me he was considering a comeback with his brothers and didn't have time for more demanding roles. He only agreed to sing at La Fenice because he has already studied the part of the Phantom before. And he said he liked the director…"

"He has already turned down the comeback offer, according to Shizuka-san. There are two high-budget Hollywood remakes of Three Lights' live actions, in which Seiya could have played the leading role: the Red Ninja, and Young Sherlock Holmes, since Akane-san insisted that Taiki play Young Moriarty this time. He threw away both chances—for whose sake, we can all imagine! Shizuka-san would have talked to you in person if she hadn't feared that he'd never want to see her again afterwards."

The attractive waitress brought them a new plate of olives and a bowl of potato chips—the usual snacks for the spritz—and flushed at Tenoh-san when Tenoh-san gave her a little wink. Hazily, Shiho wondered whether the waitress would still be so taken by Tenoh-san if she knew Tenoh-san's real sex. It wasn't unlikely, as many women had doubted and redefined their sexual orientation after meeting Tenoh Haruka.

"Even if you weren't ruining his career—don't look at me like that, you know you do!—this has been doomed to failure right from the start. Your relationship lacks a solid foundation because it's built on a lie. Or on your economical handling of the truth, if you object to be called a liar." Tenoh-san pushed the bowl of potato chips towards Shiho, who declined. "If Seiya marries you and learns about our secret some day—someone will always talk!—he will go through hell during a divorce. You know he hates the paperwork just as much as you hate the publicity."

"The solution is simple." Shiho made an effort to keep her face impassive. "We aren't going to marry."

Tenoh-san was visibly appalled by Shiho's obstinacy.

"And how long, do you think, will this situation last? Seiya loves kids. I'm sure that he will want to have his own some day. You two can't raise children together under these circumstances. This is a ticking bomb! You're stealing his time."

As Shiho didn't respond, Tenoh-san pressed on: "In a few months, you're going to see Kudo again—"

"I don't know whether it will be possible after this." Shiho gave the trading card, which was sandwiched between the plate of olives and the bowl of potato chips, a hateful look. "If we don't solve this problem by December, I'll have to postpone our Beika trip. I don't want to get Kudo and the Professor into trouble."

Tenoh-san impatiently waved the interruption away.

"When you meet Kudo again, old feelings are likely to reemerge—"

"That ship sailed a long time ago," Shiho coldly put her straight. "I'm not interested!"

She had grown accustomed to their correspondence, in which they never trod on the boundaries of friendship (although his mails sounded at times oddly flirtatious!), and the conviction that he would always stay the most important influence on her without ever being able to throw her emotions into turmoil again. Apart from the secret she had to keep from Seiya and the danger the trading card had caused them, she liked her present life as it was—a quiet, reclusive life with occupations which gave her satisfaction even though she didn't earn much, a few good friends in Beika, whom she was going to see again in a few months, and an amiable life partner, whom she loved and who loved her.

If you cared enough about someone to give up your life for their sake, your feelings for them would never really die, Tenoh-san asserted. It was only a question of time and circumstances until they returned. "Don't you think that it will hurt Seiya more if you leave him for another man than if you just leave him now? He deserves better than what you can give. You've already stolen four years of his life in which he could have recovered from the separation, fallen in love anew, and marry someone else. Don't stay with him just because it's so comfortable."

"Have you ever considered that it's exactly what I don't want him to do?" Shiho took a potato chip from the bowl and balanced an olive on it. "Maybe I'm staying with him simply because I can't leave!" She ate the potato chip and the olive in quiet defiance, deciding to treat the matter as lightly as possible.

She could leave him since she had already done it more than once, Tenoh-san insisted. She only needed to stay away for a few months until the feelings had died down. "I'm sorry if you've become too attached. But what you do for Seiya is absolutely nothing compared to what he has to give up for you." To turn it up a notch (she had always had a weakness for dramatic gestures), Tenoh-san added solemnly, "If you don't leave him by the end of this year and join me for our 'emergency measures', I'm going to end it for you two."

If Tenoh-san were another person, Shiho would have thought the warning to be a product of sadism or the twisted desire to control, which would have rendered it harmless, for Tenoh-san would only lose her power over Shiho and endanger herself after carrying out her threat. However, Shiho knew Tenoh-san well enough to believe her that she sincerely tried to help at the cost of harming herself. Tenoh-san's generosity, in its extraordinary excessiveness, was infinitely more menacing than sadism.

"I wonder why you can't see how insufferable your little games are." Shiho morosely watched the last ice cubes melt in her glass and, for unknown reason, was suddenly reminded of Seiya's carefree laugh when he claimed that he would still like her even if she had tested poisons on annoying colleagues. "You put so much pressure on others that, some day, someone is going to snap."

"I wouldn't tell you the truth if I didn't care about you." Tenoh-san leaned over the table until Shiho could discern her fragrance, a confusing mixture of white musk and wild rose exuding sweetness and warmth, mingled with the dry, bitter scent of Campari. "I thought we were on the same page when you went with Seiya to Venice. I told you that it was only a question of time until it ends, when you were done with the cure and I returned the screwdriver to you. You claimed that you knew what you were doing and that you only wanted to enjoy your time here without having great expectations. So, who is playing games with whom?"

Struck by the realization that Tenoh-san had never intended to leave Seiya and her alone and that, Machiavellian as she had always been, she had been determined to destroy their relationship after Shiho finished the cure at the latest, Shiho tightened her grip on her glass, blinking back tears of rage at the betrayal.

Tenoh-san reached out and gently touched the small bracelet on Shiho's wrist, her rich contralto voice tender and full of concern. "Did you really believe that this could miraculously work out in the end?" Her deep eyes, whose colour shifts between teal blue and hazel in the flickering candlelight, grew warm and melancholic as they tried to capture Shiho's gaze. "We both know that the world isn't a stage—and _Romeo and Juliet_ is only a play."

"It's time to end our date now that you've worked yourself up into your psycho-mode!" Shiho angrily fished for her purse. Thoroughly sick of Tenoh-san's condescending attitude and tedious abstractions, she began to miss Seiya, who was pleasantly uncomplicated by comparison.

"Don't, koneko-chan!" Tenoh-san stopped her with an imperious flick of her wrist. "I'll pay."

They were past the stage of bickering about whose turn it was to pay for their drinks and meals, and Shiho mourned their on-again, off-again friendship, which had been constantly eroded by Tenoh-san's belief that she was entitled to decide over other people's lives for them.

"Have you thought of Kaioh-san?" Shiho made a last attempt to change Tenoh-san's mind. "What's going to happen to her if you really go through with your plan?"

"I'm _always_ thinking of her," Tenoh-san coolly retorted. "I'm thinking of her—her music and her painting career—and of our little princess, who should be allowed to live the rest of her life without this Pandora's Box mess!" That's why they had to do whatever was needed to keep them safe, Tenoh-san asserted. The two of them should also make the best of the situation and use the chance to turn the world into a better place than it was now.

The same words as Gin's—years ago, when Shiho was young and naive and still believed in grand utopian dreams, especially when they came from his lips. Beholding Tenoh-san's unruly white-blonde bangs, which were starting to fall into her eyes, it hit Shiho that darkness was lurking in the most noble minds, taking over as soon as self-indulgence coloured one's own perception.

"It's _you_ who has changed since Pandora's Box," Shiho remarked, for once abandoning herself to nostalgia. "Back then you only tried to protect the people you loved and take revenge on the seven crows. Now that you're accustomed to playing hero, you carelessly wreck other people's lives for your utopia."

"It's odd that you scorn utopias so much when your own boyfriend's name alludes to them." Tenoh-san smiled, switching from being unbearably preachy to being unbearably charming just as quickly as the wind changed its character.

"Apparently, it's not his name I'm in love with," Shiho pointed out.

"Don't be such a dope and nurture forlorn hopes," Tenoh-san slowly shook her head. "I've known him for longer than you—just in case you've forgotten. Seiya is extremely protective about the people he loves. He is never going to forgive us for what we've done!"

Hope could be either the greatest blessing or the greatest evil from Pandora's Box, for it calmed and inspired as well as it tortured and mocked—Tenoh-san philosophized, drank up her spritz, and casually took apart her orange zest twist. But hope, as dangerous as it was, was also indispensable.

Perhaps it wasn't her but Shiho, who had forgotten that stars were but untouchable to human hands. An invaluable guide in the darkness, the light they emitted came from a faraway place, which was separated from our world by space and time.

You could be tempted to believe that you only needed to climb a mountain and reach out to catch one in your hand, Tenoh-san concluded. But you should be sensible enough to know that this hope was ultimately deceptive.

"Do you know what Van Gogh said about this?" She indicated the brightest star on the card and, instinctively, touched the gold cross around her neck. " _Just as we take the train to Tarescon or Rouen, we need death to reach a star._ "

x.


	27. Part Three: When Shiho finally...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**When Shiho finally…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

When Shiho finally manages to drag herself out of bed, it is already past nine o'clock. Since Seiya has removed all her clothes from last night—her nightdress, her negligee, even her lingerie (if this wasn't a prank, he must have thought that she expected him to do the laundry before his morning practice session), she has to stop at their wardrobe on the way to the bathroom. In her underwear drawer, she finds the curt and perfectly unromantic note he has left her: "Have made coffee. Don't skip breakfast! I'll be back before lunch. Love, SK."

After slipping into her favourite wool dress and brushing her teeth, she wraps herself into a blanket and takes a small tray with coffee and the pancakes her boyfriend has left in the oven to the roof terrace. As usual, he has also brought her the morning papers and left them in the basket at the glass door, next to her slippers. A headline jumps at her the moment she takes the first newspaper into her hand: "Has our Young Godfrey Norton finally found his Irene?"

She has been depicted as a mysterious, sultry strawberry-blonde beauty of mixed race, whose cool and serene aura has challenged the notorious playboy, who was known to love his independence so much that he often ditched his prospective affairs after one night or even before sleeping with them. Seiya has underlined every word he considered wrong—thus censoring ninety percent of the article—and written his own version into the margin. " _I'm_ the singer and actor," says his handwriting in black ink. "It's not you but _me_ , who is Irene."

The thought of the Sherlock Holmes of the twenty-first century calling her boyfriend "the woman" and keeping a photo of him on his mantlepiece is enough to make Shiho spill her coffee and choke on her pancake. And she proceeds to have breakfast alone in a fairly happy mood even though she wonders why Seiya couldn't have stayed home with her for one morning. Either of them has always been so busy these days that, even on weekends, they only have time for each other during lunch, dinner, and at night—and the last time they actually had breakfast with each other or spent the whole day with each other was months ago. At least he has kept the Christmas season free this year so that they can stay for two or even three weeks in Tokyo. If everything goes according to plan, this will also be their first long trip together since their arrival in Venice.

Seiya has more than once tried to upgrade their relationship, which is perpetually alternating between torrid love affair and pleasant cohabitation, into something more permanent. Being a man of gestures and not of words, he has showered her with affection and spent whatever free time he has on her without ever telling her that she is more than a casual lover and amusing companion to him. Kudo, on the other hand, has certainly given his Ran-nee-chan a proper love declaration before the very first kiss, Shiho thinks, wondering why she is comparing them to each other all of a sudden. It must be Tenoh-san's insidious influence, which has been weighing heavily on her during the past years.

To her regret, her shock reaction to the couple rings Seiya once brought home has also effectively nipped all his attempts at changing the status of their relationship in the bud. But while Shiho likes the present situation, which has most of the advantages of a conventional marriage and none of its disadvantages, she sometimes wishes he were more verbally expressive when it came to his feelings for her. Although he regularly writes song lyrics (which he guards like personal diary entries and seldom shows her), Seiya has never—not even once—alluded to the famous three words during the four years of their relationship. To be fair, Shiho has never done it either. And after ignoring them for so long, it seems awkward to say _the words_ , which have taken on a new significance for her now that everything they've built up together can be wrecked by one single message from Tenoh-san to Seiya.

Even after she has sporadically cleaned up, cooked lunch, and exercised, Seiya is still away. Since they still have to clean their apartment together before Kudo's visit, she decides to use the telephone in their bedroom, which is usually muted, to call Seiya's private mobile number.

Ignoring the ninety-odd messages on their answering machine (most of which must have been left by Seiya's choleric agent), she deals the number she knows by heart and smiles, ready to admonish him for playing a prank on her first thing in the morning. Contrary to her expectations, however, Seiya's ringing tone comes from the living room—from under the sofa, to be exact, as she discovers when she follows the faint sound. Crawling on all fours under the table to fish his mobile phone from under the sofa, Shiho discovers the pale pink piece of paper her ungovernable life partner has rolled and attached to the phone with a red bow.

"You looked so tired that I didn't want to wake you up," says the small note. "Have left my phone at home so that I can call you.

PS: I've left it under the sofa so that it won't disturb you if you're still asleep."

She is still shaking her head at his twisted logic when she hears the sound of a key in the lock and his familiar steps in the corridor. Leisurely strolling into the corridor, she inwardly prepares herself to rebuke him for his disappearance. Yet his present attire is so bizarre that all she can do is to stare at him as he kicks off his shoes, puts down Alberto Coiro's old accordion, and carefully places the huge paper box he has been holding in his left hand on the floor, directly between their pink dahlia and their purple dahlia.

"A group of urban sketchers has bought all the tiramisu, Makoto-chan says." He leans in to kiss her, handing her the small round bouquet of half-bloomed fragrant roses he has been carrying in his right hand. "Hence I took the zabaglione."

She beholds the swirling arrangement of radiant apricot, peach, and orange roses among the clouds of white baby's breath with silent approval before she pulls him down for another, deeper kiss, frowning as she tastes alcohol and cappuccino.

"You've had a glass of vodka before lunch?" She frowns. And you've had coffee without me, she mentally adds in a jealous fit, wondering whom he has been seeing.

He is entirely unapologetic, as usual.

"Just for the disguise."

After seeing the accordion, she doesn't even need to ask whom he has been disguising himself as.

"Was this for the disguise as well?" She trails her fingertips over his chin, taking care not to touch the cut itself.

As long as it's not permanent like a severed limb, he will do it for his role, he declares with audible pride.

"Do shave once more before Kudo comes!" She shoots him a stern look.

"Of course, Milady." He bows deeply, in the manner musketeers usually bow in movies, flashing her a roguish smile.

"Zabaglione is perfect. But this looks almost like an autumn wedding bouquet!" She brings her face to the large flower heads for a moment, enjoying their voluptuous, velvety scent. "It's not like I'm complaining—but Kudo is already taken, so I can't marry _him_." To her own surprise, she realizes she has mentioned marriage twice within twenty-four hours.

"You'll have to make do with me then," her boyfriend casually offers, hanging the old leather jacket he has kept from his teenage days on the streets on a hook. "You should look inside before putting them into the vase," he adds on the way to the bathroom.

"You're not rich enough—but I'll consider it," she smirks, pulling the little platinum screwdriver out of the bouquet with a frown. "Was this in the post this morning?"

"Michiru-sama found it on Haruka-san's bedside table when she came home last night. Haruka-san must have left it there before going to La Fenice." Seiya, who has just washed his hands and his face, joins her in the kitchen, where she, balancing on the tip of her toes, is trying to fish for a vase on a high shelf. "I couldn't sleep. So I visited Michiru-sama before buying the cake. As I thought, she couldn't sleep either." With a chuckle, he takes down the vase for her and fills it with water while she cuts the flowers.

So he had been drinking cappuccino with his much admired violinist, with whom he once had a flirt that ended with Tenoh-san's fist—which he, luckily, caught in time although its uncommon speed scared him witless—while his life partner of four years had to eat breakfast alone. Nevertheless, Shiho is in a generous mood, especially towards Kaioh-san, whom she feels sorry for after the events of last night.

"How is she today?"

"Great, considering the circumstances… She is taking care of herself and has even invited a friend over—Elza Gray, the daughter of Mr. Gray, who's directing our musical. I didn't know Haruka-san and she were once classmates."

"At Infinity?"

"No, before that, at Shirabaka. She was the one who introduced Michiru-sama to Haruka-san."

After placing the vase of flowers on the table, Seiya ceremoniously takes Shiho's wrist and removes the love bracelet with swift movements, which she enjoys watching, as she likes his cinematic gestures, which he doesn't even seem aware of. Now that the bracelet is gone, Shiho almost misses the familiar feeling around her wrist. Commitment is both a blessing and a curse.

"Freedom at last," he smiles in satisfaction, placing both the screwdriver and the bracelet on the sofa next to her. "Adieu, Haruka-san, wherever you are!"

"I'm not going to miss her," Shiho coolly remarks. "But I'm going to miss the bracelet." She strokes her naked wrist. "It has boosted my ego to wear such a high-class piece of jewellery for four years. How much did it cost? I can sell it when we're broke."

"Four years of slavery," he reminds her. "And I can put it on you again if you want me to."

"But at least it was for a good cause," she reminds him, intentionally ignoring his offer. She prefers him to put it on her during a special occasion, in another setting. She has always had a weakness for romantic gestures and beautiful scenery.

"It was," he concedes and habitually kisses her on her temple before letting himself fall into the armchair opposite her. "What are you going to do with it now?" Indicating the bracelet, he pouts. "Since it's a present from me, I'd be sad if you simply sold it to someone else."

She can remember very well how he gave it to her… Noticing that the shrunk scientist he had fished out of the sea was admiring the love bracelet which Cartier had given him (and which he was trying to dump on Tenoh-san, as he didn't have a girlfriend at that time), Seiya had slipped the sinfully expensive platinum bangle over Haibara Ai's wrist with the "love declaration", _Since you like it so much, it's yours!_ Turning to Tenoh-san, he lightly added, _Look, the kid has the right wrist for the bracelet. Very pretty bone structure! In five or six years, all the boys in class are going to fight over her screwdriver._

Blithely unaware about the damage he had just caused, he tossed Ai the screwdriver, which landed with pinpoint accuracy in her lap, and slid out of the living room to play the guitar while Tenoh-san, who must have known about Ai's one-sided infatuation with him, gave "the kid" a look full of pity. Irritated but, at the same time, elated by the unexpected present, the only words Ai could utter were, _You know, this is already the second time that something like this has happened to me!_

 _What shall I say, you're a ten-year-old kid,_ Tenoh-san pointed out. _You're a non-female to him. Just accept the present as a souvenir and don't make this more complicated than it already is. You'd never be able to keep a guy like him, anyway, with his acting career and his love of total freedom. Don't get burned!_

Tenoh-san also pocketed the screwdriver with the remark that, since Seiya wouldn't keep it, she was going to take care of it until Shiho finished the cure. After all, this bracelet was meant to be a promise, whose nature didn't necessarily have to be romantic.

Shiho did want to complicate matters, however, and resolved to take the antidote during the same night, much to Tenoh-san's horror. Deep down, Shiho knew that Tenoh-san's attractive friend, who dropped in on her whenever Tenoh-san wasn't looking, was fascinated by her although he had to push her away as long as she was in a child's body. Shiho, on the other hand, had been driven by the urge to make it right, to give a sad story a happy ending. There he was, the other man she adored and instinctively trusted the moment they met—which was no mean feat since she would always compare any man she met to Kudo, who had set the scale so high that she had expected to stay single for the rest of her life. And now that she had finally found him, she wasn't going to let something as insignificant as her small size come between them.

Naturally, Shiho didn't know anything about Seiya's family back then although his name and the names of his siblings struck her as intriguing: Yaten—Night Sky, Taiki—Atmosphere, Seiya—Star Field or Starry Night, Kakyuu—Fireball. Seiya's parents must have been interested in astronomy, she thought, as "fireball" could allude to a bolide, an extremely bright, exploding meteor. After learning about his parents from Tenoh-san, she fled in distress, as everyone else with the sufficient amount of brain cells would have done. But then Seiya started to pursue her—running after her with all the despair, passion, and single-minded persistence of the first requited albeit ill-fated love until she gave in. And thus they fell hopelessly, tragically, in love and, as a result, into this bloody mess, whose dimension only Tenoh-san and Shiho knew.

"It might have been your present—but it didn't mean anything to you when you gave it to me." Shiho takes the screwdriver into her hand, turning it to and fro, enjoying the sunlight reflecting off its polished side. "Anyhow, it's still mine! And I'm going to search for a nice steady life partner, who will keep this for me from now on."

As expected, Seiya leaps to her side, picks up the bracelet from the sofa in the same movement, and extends his hand towards her.

"The screwdriver," he orders.

"Dream on!" she smirks, strolls into their bedroom, and opens her underwear drawer to place the screwdriver next to Kudo's locket pendant. "Maybe I'm going to give it to you some day—after you've earned the right to take care of it. But until then, I'm going to enjoy my freedom!"

If he still sticks by her after learning the truth about his parents' death—she decides—she is going to wear any piece of couple jewellery he gives her and even sign a marriage license if he wants her to. Like Tenoh-san said, however, stars are unattainably distant despite their apparent nearness—and incurable optimists are the first ones who die of heartbreak when reality bites, having entertained vain hopes for too long…

He hands her the bracelet he is holding with a sigh, murmuring that, although she is generous in all other aspects, she has always been stingy when it came to commitment.

Gazing at her reflection in the mirror of the wardrobe, Shiho notices absently that the small necklace from Kudo doesn't match her low-cut wool dress at all. Hence she removes it, attaches the pendant to the necklace again, and leaves it in the drawer, next to the other pieces of love jewellery. Despite her eye for beauty, Shiho—pragmatic and easily bored by material possessions—doesn't feel any strong attachment to her jewellery and her clothes, and it surprises her that she has been wearing Kudo's love necklace for so long even though it doesn't even carry a romantic connotation.

"Are you taking it off because of me?" He looks genuinely horrified.

"No, because it doesn't go well with this dress," she shrugs.

"You can wear it whenever you want to," he vehemently insists. "I really don't mind at all."

"Have you been jealous over a necklace?" She raises her brow, laughing about the ridiculous situation. "Who is the one who will have to make out with pretty actresses onstage while I have to watch and smile and pretend that everything is fine?"

"I'm not making out with anyone but you." He folds his arms, frowning.

"So you're going to push Hino-san away tonight when she throws herself at you for an authentic kiss onstage?"

He doesn't even bat an eyelid.

"Yes."

"All right. I'm looking forward to seeing it."

The corners of his lips tremble before he chuckles and bends down to kiss her, amused by the mental image her words have conjured up. But just when she has put her arms around his neck and returned the kiss, he draws away.

"We're being watched," he calmly says, pointing through the window, which she has left open, at a balcony in the distance, on which she can discern a white dress, a blonde head beneath a red hat, and a small face, which is almost hidden by a shawl and a pair of dark binoculars. Staggered by the sudden change, it takes her a beat to put two and two together.

"Gorowitz is watching our bedroom now?" she whispers in disbelief while he closes the window and lowers the blinds.

"Apparently," he says. While his voice is still gentle and low, his eyes, usually amiable and impossibly blue, have taken on a ruthless, icy expression she has already seen in Gin's before.

He is standing at the window in a perfectly straight pose, peering at their stalker through the half-closed Venetian blinds. Seeing him with the pattern of sunlight filtering through the blinds and its shadows projected on his frilly white d'Artagnan shirt, the stark contrast of his dark head and bright eyes thus highlighted by the striped background, it suddenly dawns on Shiho why she is always protecting their relationship so jealously before the start of a new season: Whenever he gets invested in a role, Seiya morphs into it until he retreats from her even when he is offstage. He has already begun to remind her of the Phantom of the Opera with his intensity and the curtness of his response. And when he turns away from the window, the fury in his eyes is still apparent, which is uncharacteristic of him.

"Has she sent you threatening love letters again?" she inquires to lighten the mood.

"Something similar to it." He gives her an enigmatic smile, and his gaze softens when he sits down on the bed and pulls her on his lap. "Nothing important, though," he says indifferently. "She wrote she'd like to visit me in my dressing room tomorrow because she wants us to be friends."

x.

* * *

 

**After lunch…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

After lunch—a simple minestrone and a mixed salad, which Seiya devoured with ravenous appetite (all the time darting the cook appreciative, sunny smiles as though he had skipped breakfast and had been starving)—they routinely speed-clean their apartment together. He wipes the kitchen counter, does the dishes, and hangs the laundry he has washed on the clothes rack on their bedroom balcony while she changes the bedding and the sheets, dusts the whole apartment, and puts miscellaneous items into their respective places. Now that Shiho has finished her tasks, she comfortably ensconces herself on their sofa and stretches out her legs, pretending to focus on the daily planner in her hand while watching her boyfriend wipe the floor. Crouching next to the water bucket, Seiya is stoically listening to his agent's lecture on the phone, which is hanging from the chain around his neck, while scrubbing the parquet floor in quick, efficient movements.

"I haven't asked you to take a vow of celibacy—I've only asked you to wait until their comeback before you drop the bomb, Seiya! This Christmas, dammit! Was that so difficult to manage?" Igarashi Shizuka's voice cracks. "The hospitals are bursting with female patients and their distraught families because over a hundred lovesick girls have slit their wrists or tried to hang themselves until now. That's a new record, and I'm besieged by reporters—but we really don't need this sort of publicity before Taiki and Yaten's comeback. You're hogging the limelight again! Don't do it unless you plan to return to the stage with them!"

He is extremely sorry about the fans, but it wasn't exactly his idea to make it public, and he is just as frustrated with this situation as she is—Seiya protests as he wrings out the cleaning rag.

"Tenoh-san wouldn't have had anything in her hands if you hadn't moved in with your girlfriend. You two could even have done the business in public and Miyano-san would still be only one of the many affairs of yours! The gutter press would have slandered her for a while and then forgotten about her, but now…" Her sonorous voice shakes in frustration. "I've told you _over and over again_ that I'm against this! You three were supposed to stay single until you're at least thirty-five! I don't need any steady, official girlfriends running around ruining my darlings' images—especially not yours!"

"Well, my reputation can't get any worse," her darling dryly remarks. He has arrived at the sofa and removed his gloves to stroke Shiho's knees and to press silent, lingering kisses on her feet and legs, which are conveniently at the same level as his chest when he is sitting on the floor.

"Work before pleasure!" Shiho reluctantly draws away when he begins to nibble her knee, blowing hot breath onto her skin and trailing warm, seductive kisses up her thighs. Fearing that she could give in and go along with his outrageous suggestion—while she loves his irreverent sense of humour, Shiho firmly believes that Igarashi-san's voice should never be connected to this form of entertainment in her mind—she leaves the sofa and walks to her handbag to put her daily planner away.

"You were cool before this mess, Seiya. Cool!" rants Igarashi-san, oblivious to the proceedings on the other end of the line. "You were once the cool, wild bad boy of the group. Barhopping is fine! One-night stands are great as long as you stay away from your insane groupies. You're supposed to be the adventurous mystery man every woman dreams of and no woman can really touch—at least not for longer than a few hours." Whenever Igarashi-san is on the verge of tears, her deep voice flutters until it rises to a dramatic soprano. "You're _the unattainable romantic dream_ , which _I_ have created! You don't only have the ideal looks and the ideal voice for your image, my love—you even have the perfect personality and the perfect name for it. I've put my heart into you! You're _not_ supposed to get yourself a steady girlfriend and play the adoring, boring, plain-vanilla boyfriend, who does all the mundane daily things like grocery shopping and sharing the housework with his woman." She goes into hysterics. "The damn role doesn't suit you at all. No one wants to see you in it. It _sucks_! _You_ suck in it!"

"I'm changing my old image into that of the adoring, adventurous, cool boyfriend—so what?" Disappointed by Shiho's rejection and tired of his agent's antics, Seiya nonchalantly wipes the legs of the chairs and the floor under the coffee table. "You can't seriously expect us to meet up in hotels and pensions for years. And renting a second apartment is much too expensive. You know the prices here."

"It wouldn't be expensive for you at all, sweetheart, if you had agreed to revive Three Lights. And don't get me started on all the movie offers and the millions of Hollywood dollars you've foolishly refused just because you can't bear the thought of neglecting your pretty girlfriend for a few years and doing a few harmless love scenes with some of the most beautiful women in the world in front of the camera! We're all still waiting for you to grow up and change your mind—preferably before December." Igarashi-san heaves a weary, heartfelt sigh. "If you intend to starve and waste your talent, idiot, it's fine, fine, _fine_ to me! I'm looking forward to the day when your lover finally dumps you for someone else with more money and, above all, _more brains_ and you're alone _and_ broke. You'll have lost years or decades by then but you'll still shoot to stardom again and the brainless women will still slit their wrists out of unrequited love to you even when you're as old as the hills. Dad said they were running after you when you were still a skinny arrogant brat working for some spare change in the circus. A rascal like you never loses! But your two hyper-sensitive, chronically depressed, too-beautiful-to-survive-in-this-world brothers can't piece themselves together on their own—and you haven't only selfishly abandoned them, you're also dragging them down with you, ruining their careers, stealing their limelight. I'm _not_ going to accept it!"

"Aren't you being a bit melodramatic?" Seiya blinks at the phone dangling from his neck, amused by his agent's tirade. Yet Shiho can see that Igarashi-san has opened old wounds when she mentioned his brothers. When he returns to the bucket to wash the rag, he looks distracted, almost sorrowful.

"Thirty-nine editors called me within an hour this morning, Seiya! No comment, I said—since Shizuka-sama absolutely doesn't know what her darling does in his spare time! He shuttles back and forth between New York and Venice, runs off to Chicago, Rome, or Paris, and disappears for weeks or months without notifying anyone. He accepts roles in random musicals in Italy or France without telling me in advance. His phone is always muted or turned off, and he never, ever, calls back. At twenty-five, he is still the enfant terrible of the group—just as he has been right from the beginning: refusing to give interviews, hiding from the girls, roaming cities in disguise, lazying around on park benches whenever possible, waiting until he is stony broke before accepting a job, doing half-hearted rehearsals just to awe the audience during the performances… Any other agent would have kicked him long ago—and I only stick by him despite his cavalier attitude because I'm masochistic and addicted to his voice and because it's my deceased daddy's last wish! Who am I kidding? Even his two brothers—once the two closest, dearest people in his life!—are now thrilled when they learn from time to time that he's still alive and doesn't only get himself into senseless fights. No one knows why he is continually assaulted by bandits on his way. His brothers won't tell me anything, and he always blames it on his bad karma when I ask him. At least he has never done drugs! Apropos editors…" Igarashi-san pauses to catch her breath, changing her tone to match the new topic. "What are you going to tell the reporters tonight?"

"The truth," Seiya shrugs as he continues to scrub the corridor with his usual composure. "They won't believe me if I tell them that she is my secretary. Apart from that, I've already told you that I'm not going to hide this."

"Friends with benefit?" Igarashi-san rapidly suggests. "Open love affair? On-again, off-again lover? Woman friend? Anything but 'this is my soulmate' or 'she is the woman I love and plan to marry some day' or another corny line… I swear I'm going to make you suffer and skin you alive if you dare to do that to me!"

Seiya sighs, darting Shiho a wry smile before he wrings out the rag for the last time. "Let's agree on 'steady girlfriend' or 'life partner'," he suggests, resigned, and carries the bucket into the bathroom.

"'Girlfriend' is bad enough! Well, your 'first girlfriend' since you're going through a rare romantic phase and want to try out the lovey-dovey stuff for once. Adding the 'first' makes it sound more ephemeral… And please, please don't say more than that! You can also hint that you're still keeping all your options open because being in a real relationship is much harder than you thought…"

"I'm going to leave my options open, too," Shiho, who has followed her boyfriend into the bathroom, darkly murmurs.

"I'll just tell them that she is my girlfriend and that I'd like to keep my private life private," Seiya—who has emptied the bucket into the sink, washed the rag, and removed the gloves in the meantime—pulls the chain with the phone over his head, frowning at it. "Are you finally done now?"

"Not yet! I'm flying tomorrow morning with Yaten and Taiki and your former love-of-your-life and her vicious black cat from hell that Yaten loves so much—you and your brothers are all retarded when it comes to romance!—and we're staying at the Gritti for two nights. You, my dear Phantom, are going to have dinner with us tomorrow after the musical so that we can discuss this… Also, Akane-sama has asked me to send her favourite actor a message."

"And, what did she say?" For the first time during the phone call, Shiho can hear genuine interest in Seiya's voice.

"She said: 'The boy will show the world that he is the ideal Phantom, no doubt about it—but he should really try to stay professional this time…' Is it what I think it is, Moriarty? You gave her a really hard time back then. She has never forgiven you for what you did to the crew."

Seiya laughs, winking at Shiho with a faraway look in his eyes. "It certainly seems so…"

"What did she mean?" Shiho raises her brow.

"I think what my favourite film director meant to say was: 'Please don't get carried away by your role and murder your enemies with a lasso!'"

x.

To Shiho's relief, Igarashi Shizuka-san has not used the word "murder" as the cue to bring up the topic of Seiya being the prime suspect in the La Fenice case. Either she is the opinion that the matter is too delicate to be discussed via phone or she is honestly not interested, believing that the rumours would only support his bad boy image. In any case, she wouldn't have had the time to address the issue. Fearing that his agent could get the idea to repeat the whole lecture in different words to hammer it home, Seiya quickly ends the call with a curt "See you tomorrow" and mutes his phone.

A silence like velvet descends over the sparsely furnished, bright apartment, peaceful and soothing like the calm before the storm.

"Do you think Gorowitz is still watching our bedroom?" Even though they've lowered the blinds in all rooms, the feeling of being watched is unnerving.

"I don't know. Would you like to give her a little performance?" he winks. After the talk with his agent, he has returned to his flippant, carefree self. The Phantom of the Opera is gone.

"I think I'll pass. What are you going to do with the creep tomorrow? You can't seriously expect to have a sensible talk with Gorowitz out of all people. She is able to assault you and rape you in your own dressing room."

"She is so crazy that she's almost interesting." He shrugs. "It doesn't cost me anything to speak to her in private for once."

It costs you the free time you could spend with me, Shiho thinks, hurt by his sudden willingness to meet up with an infatuated fan who has been stalking him for years. Knowing that Seiya hates to be controlled and is likely to run away if he feels caged, she has always tried to give him as much space as possible. But now she begins to wonder whether she has given him too much freedom at the expense of their relationship.

"You can't seriously believe that I would ever start anything with someone like her," he remarks as if he has read her mind.

"I don't believe anything!" she snaps, irritated. "Don't pretend that you always know what I'm thinking!"

"That was… cold and harsh." He pouts in a soft, whiny female voice, fluttering his long, gently curved eyelashes—and Shiho laughs, instantly forgiving him for his few thoughtless actions. He has always treated her mercurial temperament with humour and patience, after all.

Why has she suddenly become so moody, she wonders, and ascribes her anxiety to Seiya's agent, who has touched a raw nerve when she once again reminded her that their relationship costs Seiya a brilliant, glittering, world-class acting career. Shiho has always tried to support her boyfriend's passion and respect his choices—but she can't lie to herself that she is cut out to be the partner of an actor of his caliber when she despises almost everything his job encompasses. With effort, she can tolerate the publicity, his fanatical fans, and the stunningly beautiful women he meets every day—"Odango's" friends are all so attractive, even fascinating—each in her special way—that Shiho has more than once wondered how Seiya had stayed immune to their charms for all those years. Even his travels and the long waiting hours in his dressing room or in the backstage area, which she can while away with a book and her own studies, are things she can get accustomed to. But after four years, she can no longer bear to see him losing himself in his role, leaving her behind to love other women and live another life until he finally snaps out of it and returns to her at night with his rueful, knowing smile, lavishing her with attention and love and caresses and gifts to keep her by his side.

Gin was always controlling and possessive, which she found unattractive and which bored her with time. But now that Shiho herself is burdened with an overly attractive partner, who turns heads wherever he goes, she can almost understand her abusive ex-lover, whose jealousy had always seemed ridiculous and stifling to her. She can't tolerate another woman's hand on Seiya, much less another woman's lips on his. Although she knows that hugs and kisses don't mean anything special in the world of acting, she feels something close to hatred boiling inside her when other women throw themselves at _her_ boyfriend and grope him whenever he can't flee from them in time.

In the last months, she has even begun to hate _The Phantom of the Opera_ ( _their_ musical, which Seiya sang to her at Tenoh-san's place!) with passion since she had to watch Hino Rei and Seiya together during the rehearsals, knowing that her boyfriend can lose himself in any role and that the lyric soprano, who is one of Odango's smartest, most elegant, and certainly Odango's most beautiful friend, is in love with him. Deciding that his career is more important than her jealousy, Shiho has often encouraged her boyfriend to return to the screen, which he has always declined, knowing that it will be impossible for her to deal with it if a role like the Phantom is already pushing her limits. Deep down, she is relieved. Even though she is still trying hard to adapt herself to all the demands of his job, she knows she is capable of murdering Seiya or at least leaving him for good if he ever agreed to do the "harmless love scenes" his agent mentioned. She still nurtures the hope that they will find a way to reconcile their relationship with his career some day. But sometimes, she wonders whether she is chasing an illusion, which has already received the first cracks, whenever she sees his eyes light up at the sight of something as simple as a new screenplay.

"Kudo is going to interrogate you again," she changes the topic, pushing her dark thoughts aside to focus on the important tasks. She still feels a surge of euphoria when she thinks of Kudo—the real, clueless, socially challenged, eternally mystery-obsessed Kudo Shinichi, who has immediately propelled her back to her time as Haibara Ai when she saw him again last night. But she is also apprehensive about Kudo's troublesome curiosity, which can smash the house of cards she has built and ruin her relationship with Seiya within a few days.

"I know."

Her lovely boyfriend is infuriatingly relaxed and fearless as usual, as if it doesn't mean anything to him that he has to defend himself under these circumstances.

"We have to agree on what we tell him." She leans against the sink and folds her arms, shooting him a piercing look à la Sherlock Holmes. "Where were you during the first act?"

He is perfectly unimpressed.

"You've already given me an alibi in front of commisario Carrara, haven't you? Although I'd told you that you shouldn't do it. It has ruined your reputation completely—"

"It was enough for the commisario," she gives a dismissive wave, "but not for Kudo. Kudo knows me. He won't believe that I'd been so desperate that I forced you to miss the concert of your friend. So, where were you during the first act?"

"We could tell him the truth," he suggests. "Just tell him that I was in Haruka-san's dressing room."

"And what were you doing there? That will be his next question, and don't tell me you're going to tell him that you've been sketching Kino-san's lilies."

"I was reading Sherlock Holmes?"

"Great idea!" she sighs, inwardly cursing Tenoh-san once again. "Forget it! You need another alibi for the first act."

He ruffles her hair, chuckling about her distress.

She shouldn't worry about him, as he doesn't need an alibi at all, he asserts. He can tell Kudo that he has been reading in Haruka-san's room—and even though Kudo will know that it is a lie, Kudo will have to accept his lame excuse. What he did during the first act is insignificant, anyway, since the police will only focus on the second interval of the concert: the time of death. The case will be closed for lack of evidence after the autopsy, and even this publicity mess—courtesy of Haruka-san's meddling—will be over soon.

"And after the musical…" he trails off with an enigmatic smile full of unspoken promises to kiss her temple and her earlobe in silence, leaving her to imagine what will happen afterwards. A long, well-deserved holiday together; travels; having his attention on her (and only on her!) for a few months before the spring season comes like in the beginning of their relationship when they locked out the outside world and pretended that only he and she existed; a reunion with the Professor and the Detective Boys in Beika… But before her inner eye, she can also see Seiya checking the mailbox the day they return to Venice, where he is going to find an old letter from Tenoh-san, which has been delivered by one of her informants. After reading it, he will either stick by her and try hard to love her again like he did before he learned the truth—or he will break at the realization that she has never been the woman he believed her to be…

Tenoh-san's message is likely to come via post, in form of a letter or a card, because a physical object that can be touched suits Tenoh-san's style more than an e-mail.

"Where is the key to the mailbox?" She steps out into the corridor. The key is not in his bunch of keys on the hook, as she can see. Seiya tends to keep it separately, as he has become too lazy to remove it from his bunch of keys every time he goes abroad.

"In my pocket," he indicates his old leather jacket in the corridor, giving her a wondering glance. "Why do you want to know?"

She walks over to his jacket, feels the pockets, and draws the small key out of his breast pocket with a rush of light-headedness. Despair has many faces, and after staying apathetic or rather frozen with fear for too long, she feels like going with the flow although she knows that this is only a short-term solution.

"Because _I'm_ going to fetch our mail from now on!"

Leaping to her side, he grabs her waist and snatches back the key, bursting into laughter when she tries to free herself and seize the key from him.

"Why are you so keen on fetching our mail all of a sudden?" He insolently waves the key in front of her nose. "I've fetched it for years. Most letters are addressed to me. _I'm_ going to keep the key!"

She hasn't expected him to put up any resistance. But then again, he has never failed to surprise her.

"Since I always choose the fan letters you're allowed to read, I should keep the key," she insists, tries to free herself from his arm with the few movements she has learned in the self-defense classes at Infinity, and discovers once again that they all don't work on Seiya, who has more practical experience. Knowing that fighting is not one of her strong points, she decides to use her powers of persuasion instead. "Aren't you glad that you don't have to fetch our mail anymore? Or are you having an affair and are trying to hide her love letters from me?"

"I'm only having an affair with you, according to the press." He cheerfully twirls the key ring around his index finger until the key draws perfect circles in the air, catching the sunlight streaming into the corridor from the glass roof above.

"This isn't an affair, this is a long-time relationship—marriage sans papers! You're not supposed to read other women's love letters without my consent."

"That's not marriage—that's prison! I read whatever I want to." He is still holding her waist, which she misuses by pulling him down for a kiss. Although she can feel how much he is enjoying it by the way he leans into her lips and deepens the kiss, he is still holding on to the key, keeping it away from her roaming hand.

"Please give me the key now," she murmurs into his ear, "and we can shower together afterwards." Since words aren't enough to convince him, she has to resort to bribery. "You'll have to hurry. We only have an hour before my detective visits us." It's already five past one on her watch, and Kudo has sent Seiya a message that he is going to visit them at two p.m.

He stops in the middle of his movements, pushes her away from him, cocks his head, and studies her with a mistrustful expression.

"Are you expecting a letter you have to hide from me?" His eyes narrow as his voice takes on the timbre of the Phantom's voice. For a moment, Shiho is left speechless by the fact that he has dared to use his Phantom of the Opera voice on her.

"Yes," she admits, amazed at her own boldness. She has never really lied to him, and she is not going to start now. "I have a few secrets from you. Does it bother you?"

Gin would have drawn the Beretta—but Seiya only gazes at her thoughtfully, contemplating her with serious eyes.

"Maybe I'm expecting mail which I have to hide from you, too." He smiles at last, amused. "Two people with secrets and only one mailbox! How are we going to solve this?"

She can't tell whether he is joking or whether he is telling the truth, as he looks exhilarated by the whole talk. To him, it might be only a game and not a calculated move.

No matter what he is hiding from her, it can't be as terrible as what she is hiding from him, she tries to reason with him. Hence it's in her best interests to keep the key.

"I'm going to keep the key, but I won't ask any questions about the letters addressed to you," he suggests in an attempt to haggle with her.

"No, _I'm_ going to keep the key—but I'm going to deliver _all_ of your letters to you from now on, even the spam from your stalkers and the fan letters you agent sends you in packets." She holds out her palm, waving it impatiently. "The key, please!"

With an exaggerated sigh, he hands her the key, which she victoriously attaches to her bunch of keys. Then they shake hands like business partners before he laughs at the situation and she throws her arms around his neck to kiss him again.

Irene Adler, the "well-known adventuress" with the "face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men," who dared to oppose the king, wouldn't let any well-meaning friend and her murky past ruin her happiness. She would simply take what she wanted and drag her Mr Norton by his ponytail to the municipal office, conventional morality be damned, Shiho decides. Irene would protect her relationship at all cost, destroy the dreaded letter, and outwit all her opponents—Mr Sherlock Holmes included. And then her husband and she would live happily ever after, for he would never learn the truth about whom he had married…

Perhaps Tenoh-san was right and she is unapologetically selfish when it comes to Seiya while she was self-sacrificing when it came to Kudo, but Shiho also thinks that she has made enough sacrifices in her life to earn the right to be completely selfish this time. Notwithstanding the many ups and downs in their relationship due to the stress with Pandora's Box, Seiya's job, and the pressure Tenoh-san has put on her, their time together has been sublime. And now that the greatest source of trouble is gone, she is not going to throw the towel.

"Shower?" She winks at him. If hell existed, she'd just secured herself a place in it. On the other hand—Shiho muses—she would already have done enough in her life to earn a permanent place in hell, which is why she will postpone worrying about her soul or her peace of mind to afterlife and rather deal with the immediate future now.

"Of course. You can't go back on your word, Ai."

He gives her a mischievous smile and brings his hands behind her neck to help her with her zipper and her bra while she pulls at the knots of his d'Artagnan shirt, undoing each knot with quiet, childish pleasure.

"I really like that name," she remarks in passing. It used to remind her of sorrow and death and the innumerable shades of grey in life. But its meaning, too, has completely changed since he used it for the first time last night.

x.

 

* * *

 

A/N:

Since readers sometimes remark that my plots are so convoluted and since someone asked me in a review in "Ghost at Twilight" whether I'm imitating any style, I'm going to explain my process of writing. I'm not trying to imitate any real authors although I love reading Agatha Christie's novels and guessing the culprit. (I once wrote a parody on a book for fun and mixed three canon universes with each other in "Lover of no fixed abode", a fic I'm rewriting), but I said it very clearly in the disclaimer and credited all the author and the works.) My long winding sentences are my personal style or whatever has accidentally turned into my style because I'm not a native speaker, as you might have noticed (grammar is something I've never really mastered, and sometimes I mix up vocabs).

Since I love reading slowly, trying to remember details and clues, I tend to bore others with clues and details myself although I try not to include too many unnecessary details. As for the convoluted plot, it simply happens to me. After starting a fic (which usually happens because a plunny absolutely wanted to be written), I stare into space until the scene emerges in my head and then take notes. Most of the time, I struggle with the technical aspect of writing (choosing the right words and phrases, sticking to the rules of grammar and punctuation, planning where to place which scene). I usually like to play with clichés (the older the better) and write whatever I want, weighing the plot against the pairings whenever I write (I can be cruel to the pairings I love most for the sake of the plot), which is why I seldom write shipping fics although I do like reading them. I also can't stick to only one genre but love to fuse many genres and play with references. But usually, the references only serve as a source of inspiration, and whenever I quote something which is not from the canon universe or from public domain works like Shakespeare or Sherlock Holmes (the Irene Adler quote in this chapter, for example, is from Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia", I usually mention it in the author's notes.

I usually try to stick to a loose summary and a clear plan of how to write it, adapting to the changes on the way. For example this fic is a mix of noir and whodunnit so that I include many details and plant clues but only linger over the atmosphere in the more romantic scenes. "Ghost at Twilight", on the other hand, is a compilation of the events of one special day, which is punctuated by dream-like flashbacks of different lengths.

There are readers who want more detailed, atmospheric descriptions in "Encounter", but it doesn't make sense to me to describe how the sunset looks or how Shinichi's lunch tastes and smells in detail when he himself is not in the least interested in it at the moment (and I especially hate describing (or reading detailed descriptions of) clothes when the details don't play any role in the story). Hence the details in my stories are usually either a plot device or a red herring, or serve another special purpose (characterization, in-joke). Sometimes I skip details because I plan to include them in a later chapter without repeating myself too much.

I often devise a clear plan of the possible endings, pairing dynamics, twists etc. although I often leave a few options open until the end because the characters sometimes end up running away with the plot. I usually let them because forcing them is much harder than letting them write themselves. :) ("Sarcasms", for example, a thriller/romance, was supposed to have a much darker ending although I decided against it and changed it in the last two chapters.)

All in all, I usually have a lot of fun writing fics because I can devise my own rules (and break them whenever I want to). I still hope that I'm going understand the grammar rules some day so that I can write faster (prepositions, for example, absolutely don't make sense to me, and I always make mistakes whenever I don't look them up). I also wish I had more time to write since I usually have to steal time to write, which results in sleepless nights, prolonged colds, even more procrastination, and work piling up, things which prevent me from writing for months before I can steal time to write again and the vicious circle restarts.


	28. Part Three: Time always...

 

x.

_Fate seemed to pull the strings_

_I turned and you were gone_

_While from the darkened wings_

_The music box played on_

("Charade", lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

x.

* * *

 

**Time always…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

r.

Time always seems to pass unbearably slowly when one has to wait. After sending a few messages to his informants and strolling to Seiya's place at the slowest pace he can muster, Shinichi still arrives twenty minutes too early. Frustrated, he indulges in what-ifs and should-haves in front of the iron gate. He should have called Ayumi before coming here, after all. Now she is going to wonder why "Ai-chan" has called Mitsuhiko but not her. Outspoken as Ayumi is, she is likely to discuss it with Mitsuhiko, which will strengthen the poor boy's illusion that his love is not entirely one-sided. Perhaps Shinichi should call Ayumi this afternoon or ask the real Ai to give her a call after Seiya has left for La Fenice so that Shinichi can finally stop this tiresome charade…

Studying the historic (fifteenth-century?) palazzo in front of him, Shinichi estimates that it must have been restored about five or six years ago. Recently, a modern elevator has been added. There is a private boat parking space in front of the gate, where Shinichi can see Seiya's boat moored between two other boats, both of which are covered in blue tarpaulins. A private stairway leads from the internal courtyard directly to the apartment on the top floor, to which the large panoramic roof terrace overlooking the centre of the city belongs. As Shinichi can see on the name plate of the mailbox, which cheekily shows "Michiru Kaioh & Haruka Tenoh" with a small printed "S. Miyano & S. Kou" added underneath, Seiya and Ai are living on the top floor. Tenoh Haruka couldn't have hated Seiya Kou very much (and she must have genuinely liked Ai!) if she let her girlfriend sell this apartment to Seiya. Or was it Kaioh Michiru, who had greater autonomy from her life partner than Shinichi has credited her with?

On the way from the public phone box to Seiya's place, Shinichi has absently observed the sinister transformation of fluffy white cumulus clouds into fast-moving rain clouds without caring much about the fickle weather. But now that it starts raining—a light drizzle which, true to the Venetian weather, can turn into a heavy shower in an instant—Shinichi decides that dropping in on Seiya and Ai twenty minutes too early won't make a difference while appearing dripping wet would pose an inconvenience to his hosts. Also, the last thing Shinichi wants is being pressed into Seiya's gaudy clothes in front of Ai's mocking eyes.

Opening the gate, which is closed but not locked, Shinichi passes the internal courtyard and climbs the four flights of stairs to the roof. No one answers the door when he rings although he can hear the faint sound of the bell and muted piano and violin music through the closed door. After waiting for a few seconds in front of the heavy wooden door, Shinichi rings again. Then, for fear that Seiya and Ai haven't heard the sound of the unobtrusive bell in the rising cacophony of jazzy chords in the background, he leaves his thumb on the button, causing the bell to ring repetitively in a fast, cheerful rhythm syncopated to the music.

A few seconds pass until Seiya's voice asks Shinichi to wait for a minute. Irked by the long wait while the rain is now pelting down on him, Shinichi checks the time on his watch. It is exactly eighteen to two o'clock. They have over two hours of interrogation before Seiya has to leave for La Fenice and he can finally talk with Ai alone.

As if he has set a timer, Seiya Kou opens the door exactly one minute later. This time, the singer and actor—who is, unexpectedly, dressed in perfectly normal clothes (white cardigan, blue jeans, indigo shirt, his long ponytail hidden beneath the wide cardigan)—has assumed the role of the charming host. Flashing Shinichi a smile which could make flowers bloom in winter nights, he invites Shinichi in, leads Shinichi down the winding stairs into the spacious entry, and takes Shinichi's coat from Shinichi to hang it on the coatstand before he disappears into the nearby bedroom and returns a few seconds later with a fresh towel for Shinichi's damp hair.

"Sorry for letting you wait," Seiya apologizes without explaining why it took him so long to open the door. "Just leave your shoes here, I'm going to take care of them later."

Apart from the door to Seiya's bedroom, which Seiya has pulled shut, there are two closed wooden doors in the entry. One leads to the second bedroom—Ai's bedroom—while the other leads to the internal staircase of the house, according to Shinichi's deduction. The living room with a small adjoining kitchen is conveniently situated behind the winding staircase to the roof terrace and is also directly connected to the entry by a doorless passage. To all appearances, Seiya has expected Shinichi to ring at the gate and come through the internal staircase of the palazzo, which is why Seiya answered the door upstairs so late.

The violin and piano jazz music from the speakers next to the fire place has faded out, and Shinichi can hear the sound of a hairdryer from behind the door next to the living room. Ai—who has always been a night owl and late riser and used to waste the whole morning yawning or sulking whenever she had to get up before seven a.m. on weekends, must have taken a shower after lunch.

On one of the vintage hooks on the wall, there is a long, extremely worn leather jacket similar to the newer one Seiya wore at La Fenice last night—the same jacket Shinichi has seen on the accordionist he met at the Piazza di San Marco. Intrigued, Shinichi compares the barely visible cut on Seiya's perfectly shaved chin to the wound he has seen on the accordionist's face. If Seiya has really disguised himself as a street musician and played the accordion at the Piazza di San Marco this morning just to hone his acting skills although he came home late last night and also has to sing _The Phantom of the Opera_ tonight, he must be crazier and more obsessed with his job than Shinichi thought.

Still, Seiya's acting and disguising skills are most impressive, and even under Shinichi's scrutinizing gaze, there was absolutely nothing which gave him away. In retrospect, the only detail which struck Shinichi as peculiar about the street musician was his pleasant scent underneath the smell of alcohol, which didn't match his disguise and which Shinichi instantly recognized because he found it strangely enthralling when he detected it in Ai's hair during the hug in front of La Fenice: a complex masculine fragrance reminiscent of warm nights in early autumn, when the aroma of kinmokusei begins to waft through the streets of Kyoto, charming the inhabitant of the city with its dark, rich sweetness. There is a luminous note of orange blossoms in the perfume as well, as Shinichi can verify once more when Seiya, who has just filled water into the water cooker, returns. The eccentric singer, who has stuffed his ponytail into his cardigan for some inexplicable reason, takes the towel from Shinichi to hang it on the clothes rack, which he must have carried from the balcony into the bedroom when it started raining before he opened the door for his guest—and Shinichi rolls his eyes at the thought that Ai and Seiya are sharing his shampoo or perfume as though they were two adolescent girls who have just struck up an unlikely but close friendship.

A few quick glances into the bedroom tells Shinichi that the pampered ex-idol sleeps in a queen-sized bed with a giant duvet _and_ two wool blankets. In this aspect, too, Seiya resembles Ai, who loves to steal the blanket just as she loves to hog the bathroom—another cause of irritation between Shinichi and her whenever they were on a trip with the Detective Boys before he surrendered, dragged himself out of bed earlier than her to use the bathroom, and cocooned himself into his blanket before he went to sleep so that she couldn't steal it in the night.

Scanning the entry and the living room, Shinichi acknowledges that Seiya's apartment is flawlessly tidy and tastefully, albeit not luxuriously, furnished. A colourful assortment of large potted flowers—dahlias in various shades of pink and purple; wild roses in orange, pink, and red; and a single red orchid—sit in front of the large mirror in the entry between the door to Seiya's bedroom and the passage to the living room. The rain is drumming and splashing cheerfully on the glass ceiling above before it runs in trickles to the sides. The round holes and the plate glass must have been added by Seiya or Tenoh, as it is uncommon (and most probably illegal?) to make such radical changes to such an old palazzo even when the changes are invisible from the outside unless one is standing on the roof terrace, looking down into the apartment.

"Coffee or tea? I've tried to get tiramisu since it's your favourite Italian dessert, but I only got zabaglione because a group of urban sketchers was faster than me." Seiya, who has breezed out of the bedroom and put Shinichi's shoes on the shoe rack, ushers Shinichi into the living room and—after washing and drying his hands at lightning speed—opens the fridge to produce a large cardboard box, which contains six colourful glass bowls of zabaglione, a large plate of flower-shaped miniature chocolate cakes, and a bowl of strawberry halves, which Seiya uses to garnish the zabaglione.

"Tea, please." Any more coffee than the tiramisu Shinichi ate at Sonoko's place and the one cup of espresso Shinichi drank at Al Timon and APAH will no longer work. "And I like zabaglione just as much as tiramisu… thank you."

"Jasmine scented green tea?"

"Perfect, thanks."

Obviously, Ai has already informed Seiya about Shinichi's preferences, and Shinichi has been welcomed by the singer into his apartment as Ai's friend and not as a sleuth, which will make the interrogation easier. Although Shinichi is apprehensive about Seiya's surprisingly amiable manners towards him, he decides to forgive the singer for his ridiculous pranks during the interrogation, at least for now. It was midnight when Seiya was questioned, Carrara publicly insulted Ai, and Seiya must have been frustrated about being kept at La Fenice the night before the opening night of _The Phantom of the Opera_ out of all nights. Despite his conviction that Seiya must have been involved in Tenoh's death according to all the clues he has found and all the facts he has gathered until now, Shinichi is professional enough to admit that his main suspect should be treated as an innocent witness until proven guilty. Moreover, Seiya-Kou-at-home is considerably more pleasant than Seiya-Kou-at-La-Fenice—and even for a tone-deaf person like Shinichi, it is hard to fight against the charm of the singer's uniquely expressive and silkily smooth voice, which he has begun to use on Shinichi as though he were courting him after making fun of him at La Fenice.

"Please make yourself at home," Seiya smiles again, indicating the small sofa and the two armchairs at the high coffee table. "She will join us soon after applying her body lotion."

As if on cue, the sound of the hairdryer stops. If Ai is really applying her body lotion at the moment, Seiya must have observed her attentively during the past years and know her better than Shinichi thought.

Moving away from the large window, which is completely covered by translucent mauve curtains and wooden Venetian blinds (either Seiya is paranoid about the paparazzi and reporters or he has a valid reason to assume that he is being stalked), Shinichi proceeds to the tiny sofa, whose aged blue leather cover shows the same wrinkles and scruffs—the same signs of use (or misuse) as Sonoko's sofa.

"Did the sofa belong to Kaioh Michiru?" Shinichi asks, settling himself into an armchair. These wrinkles on one side of the sofa always develop when a very heavy person or two slim people sit on the same spot for too long and change the position too often—what usually happens when one person is sitting on another person's lap. Kaioh must have spent many evenings on Tenoh's lap while watching TV or listening to music in their living room.

"Yes, she left it to us because Haruka-san doesn't want to have it in her apartment." Seiya carries the tray of tea and zabaglione to the coffee table, places it next to the small vase of half-blossomed roses in various shades of orange, and flops down onto the sofa—directly into the corner near the staircase, the one with the many wrinkles. "I bet she had to spend the night on this sofa whenever Michiru-sama was fed up with her flirts. Haruka-san, on the other hand, left the piano behind because Michiru-sama hates it." He gestures towards the baby grand in a corner of the room, on which the scores of _The Phantom of the Opera_ are lying. "Such small grands always lose to concert uprights when it comes to the sound. Haruka-san won it in a competition and played it a while to feed her ego until she herself couldn't hear it anymore."

"Do you play the piano, too?" Shinichi asks, accepting the cup of tea Seiya has just poured him with a smile. The singer is much more talkative than he was during the last interrogation, and Shinichi can tell that Seiya is making an honest attempt at placating him. Ai must have hauled her fake employer over the coals for his behaviour last night.

"Yes, but not regularly." Seiya pours tea into Ai's cup and into his own cup. "I'm too busy these days, but Shiho plays it from time to time."

"What do you think of Tenoh's opera?" Shinichi casually asks although, inwardly, he is seething with anger at the realization that the disrespectful brat dares to call Ai by her first name without an honorific. They've known each other for almost four years—he tries to console himself—slightly longer than the time she spent with the Professor and the Detective Boys in Beika. Maybe Ai doesn't even insist on formalities anymore, and Shinichi should try to address her without a suffix as well.

"It's a travesty of a piece, ruins the singer's voice, bores the pianist to death, kills your attention span in the long run, and pleases the audience only for one act—I'm sure the critics all love it. At least Haruka-san herself didn't think highly of it. She only wrote it to spite me."

"It's odd that she would ruin her reputation just to spite you," Shinichi points out.

"She didn't ruin her reputation—somehow the critics _and_ her fans always managed to ignore her good works and praise her mediocre pieces, which frustrated her. And Haruka-san's great passion was always racing, not music. She only agreed to play the piano professionally because Michiru-sama loved playing duets with her and because she was so driven that it would have killed her to do nothing for just one day."

"Why did she give up racing if she loved it so much?"

"I don't know. Maybe she quit racing because she'd have killed herself on the track some day, as unbelievably fast as she was. Even on the streets, she always pushed the vehicle to its limit whether it was a bike or a car."

"Well, it seems she got killed in her dressing room instead," Shinichi innocently comments.

"She might as well have continued racing then," Seiya returns, unfazed by Shinichi's remark. Meeting the singer's unreadable eyes, Shinichi is struck by the realization that they are of the same blue as Chiba Mamoru's in this light, standing in stark contrast to his jet-black hair. Tsukino Usagi must have been confused by the similarity when she saw Seiya for the first time.

"She quit racing because racing put a strain on her relationship with Kaioh-san, who was always touring around as well. So Kaioh-san gave up the violin for Tenoh-san and Tenoh-san gave up racing for her. Two great sacrifices for a great relationship," interjects Ai, who has just strolled into the living room. Even though she is wearing a knee-length cashmere dress in a grey shade of lavender, which Shinichi believes to be her favourite colour apart from red and mauve, she doesn't walk around the table and Shinichi's armchair or settle on the second armchair as Shinichi expected but simply steps over Seiya's knees while supporting herself on Seiya's shoulder to flop down on the sofa. Unaware of her tomboyish action, which jars with her feminine dress, she takes her cup of tea into her left hand and the spoon into her right hand before flashing Shinichi a faintly mischievous, curious smile.

"I'm sorry to disturb your little flirt," she winks at Seiya, giving his chin a slight knock with her spoon before sipping her tea. "But we should really eat the zabaglione before the cakes drown in it." She darts his lips an unmistakably flirtatious glance.

"We didn't want to start without you." The singer gives her fragrant hair an appreciative look, bending towards her to remove a bit of wool fluff from her neck. They are sitting so outrageously close to each other that she might as well have climbed on his lap, but Seiya doesn't seem to find anything odd about it. If they aren't really flirting with each other but only playing a charade, the charade is perfect this time. Their gestures are precisely synchronized as if they had studied and practiced them again after misunderstanding each other last night.

"We were talking about Tenoh's death at La Fenice," Shinichi says in a sharp voice, pokes at his cake, and carelessly drowns it in the zabaglione. Thoroughly sick of their silly game, he wonders why they have to keep up the pretense in front of him. She has even taken off the chain he gave her although it would match this dress perfectly if only she wore it with the pendant. Curiously enough, she is no longer wearing her love bracelet either, which strengthens Shinichi's theory that it didn't carry a romantic connotation.

"You're charming as always, Kudo," she gives him a friendly smirk. "Kino-san's zabaglione is the best we can get in Venice. I'd rather not spoil it with a mystery."

r.

Instead, she bombards him with questions about their friends and acquaintances during tea.

How is the Professor?

Fine, considering that poor Agasa-hakase had a car accident a few months ago because he played online games all night, fell asleep at the wheel, and crashed against a tree. But he is getting better although he misses her very much, just like the Detective Boys.

That's worrisome! Shinichi should find a way to lock the Professor's computer at night or give him her sleeping pills about one to two hours before midnight. "They work like a charm, as Seiya can assure you. He has already had a taste of them." She gives the man next to her an alarmingly sweet smile while he winces at the remembrance.

To Shinichi's irritation, Ai doesn't use a suffix for Seiya. And since Kou Seiya is "Seiya Kou" onstage after his agent reversed his name for Three Lights, Shinichi can't tell whether Ai addresses the former idol by his first name or by the last name of his stage name. Consoling himself with the thought that he doesn't use a suffix for Seiya either, Shinichi pushes his worst suspicions away.

"Why didn't your childhood friend—or girlfriend?—come with you?" Seiya asks. "Shiho has told me a lot about her."

Ran must be shopping with Sonoko, her best friend, at the moment. Knowing them, the shopping trip will last until dinner. "And she is not my girlfriend anymore," Shinichi adds, parenthetically. "We broke up years ago although we're still good friends."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Seiya murmurs.

"Why did you two split up?" Ai stares at him in shock. "I thought you must already be engaged to her by now…" In an attempt to comfort him and to relieve the tension, she fleetingly touches his wrist on the table. "I've been looking forward to seeing your karate- and mystery-obsessed prodigy babies."

For unknown reason, it cuts Shinichi to the quick that she has obviously not cared enough about him to read the news last winter, in which a journalist speculated after a catastrophic interview with Sonoko that "the most handsome Japanese detective of his generation" was either gay or asexual, as he left his pretty long-distance girlfriend and never dated anyone again after his—nudge nudge wink wink—"best friend" drowned. Ai couldn't have been so busy that she didn't even have the time to keep herself up to date on him in the Internet age. She must have deliberately cut the ties to him after leaving for Venice.

"We just… grew apart," he evasively says, turning his attention back to his zabaglione, which is just as delicious as she has said.

"How is Ayumi-chan doing?" she asks. At least a few things haven't changed, and she still calls Ayumi "Ayumi-chan".

Ayumi is slowly turning into a real beauty and has many friends—most of them boys hoping to go to the cinema with her some day—although she doesn't have a boyfriend yet. She has also learned to bake quite well and often feeds the Professor with cakes on weekends, causing the Professor to gain so much weight that he has to diet again.

And the rest of the Detective Boys? Tsuburaya-kun, Kojima-kun?

"Genta is, well, still Genta," Shinichi sighs. "You know him. He eats nonstop and always gets into trouble. But Mitsuhiko has changed very much!" Sipping his tea, Shinichi carefully watches Seiya's reaction in his peripheral vision while keeping his eyes fixed on Ai. "He has set himself the goal of marrying you in the future and is working hard to become a good match for you. I'm just warning you so that you don't accidentally encourage him or hurt his feelings when you two meet."

"It seems I have more than one rival in Beika." Seiya throws Ai an amused glance. "Just like here…" He pours Shinichi and Ai a second cup of tea. "Almost every man hates me after meeting her."

"I wish that was true," Ai sighs, flashing Seiya a wry smile. Turning to Shinichi again, she waves her last sentence away with a smooth flick of her wrist and sips at her tea. "They all can't stand him, that's true, but for a completely different reason... I've stopped counting all the women who are waiting in line to get his number and to grope him after a performance. The same happens when we go out for a drink even when he is incognito and I'm hanging on his arm. I found it funny and almost flattering at first. But after four years, I've begun to wish that I had an invisible machine gun."

"So that's your job as his 'secretary'? Keeping the women away from him? That's why you two have to play this silly game and pretend that you're his girlfriend?" Shinichi asks her, deciding to be straightforward because he can't take this feeling of uncertainty any longer.

Meanwhile, Ai has suddenly jerked at the curls at the nape of Seiya's neck with the strange exclamation: "This is so childish! Why are you trying to hide it? You'll catch a cold if you stay like this!" while the singer furiously blushes and darts both Shinichi and her panicked glances. In response to Shinichi's questions, both of them freeze and then turn their heads towards him in alarm.

"You… really believe that I'm Seiya's secretary?" Ai asks in disbelief—visibly insulted, almost disgusted by Shinichi's words—leaving her fingers entangled in the singer's hair.

Taken aback by her inexplicable anger, Shinichi gives her a blank look, trying to make sense of her odd behaviour. Next to her, Seiya is staring at Shinichi as well while a broad mix of conflicting emotions—amazement, exasperation, even compassion?—are flitting across his face.

"Please excuse me for a few minutes," the singer sighs at last, helping Ai pull the rest of his ponytail out of his cardigan with an air of determination and resignation. "I'll go and finish drying my hair while you two can continue the catching up."

Watching Seiya's long hair spill over his shoulder and his back, gleaming in its wet state on the white cardigan like black onyx on newly fallen snow, Shinichi's mind begins to absorb the meaning of Ai's and Seiya's words and actions in slow motion, fitting all the puzzle pieces together. First: Seiya's ponytail, which is still wet and hasn't even been combed. Second: the fact that this apartment, which is smaller than Shinichi thought, would lack a bathroom if Ai had really come out of her bedroom. Third: the time Seiya would have needed to dry himself and storm out of the bathroom to tell Shinichi to wait for a minute. Fourth: the one minute an experienced actor would need to throw on the first pieces of clothing he could find and to blow-dry his bangs and the short top layers of his hair while the rest of his hair is much too long to be combed and dried in such a short time…

"You should also change into a dry shirt," Ai suggests with a worried glance at Seiya when he gets up and walks straight into the room Shinichi has mistaken for Ai's bedroom at first. "The water must have seeped through it already."

"As you wish," the singer affectionately mocks her—mimicking the posture, gestures, facial expression, and the voice of the pirate in _The Princess Bride_ —before shutting the door behind him.

The regular weekend baths Shinichi used to share with Ran when he was still shrunk come to mind, succeeded by a migraine attack, for which Shinichi will need more than the two capsules of APAH Ai has prescribed him. Bossy as she is, Ai must have pushed Seiya out of the shower or bath they were sharing when Shinichi rang, asking the singer to dry himself perfunctorily and get dressed in a hurry to open the door for Shinichi so that she can rinse herself, blow-dry her hair, and apply her body lotion at a leisurely pace.

"I'd never have expected _you_ to have a boyfriend," Shinichi blurts out after Seiya has left, trying to suppress the tremendous, overwhelming sense of betrayal. While he has been searching for her and waiting for her like a faithful, loyal wife, torturing himself with his regrets for years and dreaming of what might have been and what never happened, she has happily flung herself into a romantic dalliance with another man and even had the audacity to invite _him_ into their love nest! Beside himself with fury, Shinichi makes an abrupt gesture encompassing the whole apartment, maybe even the whole damned isle, and almost knocks the roses off the table, which she hurriedly catches and moves away from him. "You can't be serious about this!"

She looks deeply offended now, although the colour that has suffused her cheeks and the steely glint that has stolen into her ambiguously coloured eyes only heighten her beauty, which he has, until now, never acknowledged on an emotional level.

"I know you think I'm one of the boys, Kudo," she coolly says, demonstratively leans back into the sofa, folds her arms, and crosses her legs. "But _he_ —" she indicates the bathroom with a movement of her head, "—actually fell in love with me only days after we met. It doesn't look like a fling either because it has lasted for four years despite all the stress we've had. This is damn serious, in my opinion!"

There it is, the horror scenario, Shinichi realizes when the La Fenice case, which has been wiped out of his mind after this shattering blow, once again materializes before his inner eye. Ai doesn't only have a harmless celebrity crush—she is entangled in a long-time love affair with his prime suspect! And from the look of things, she would immediately prescribe Shinichi one of her nasty undetectable drugs without batting an eyelid if he dared to suggest that she help him convict Seiya before returning with him to Beika.

r.

_End of Part Three_


	29. Part Four: About three years and...

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**About three years and…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

About three years and eleven months ago, Tenoh Haruka was suffering from a severe migraine…

It wasn't the sort of migraine caused by a terrorist she had failed to take out before they could detonate a bomb in front of innocent children. Over the years, Haruka had learned to cope with that sort of headache by taking her anger out on other criminals who deserved the grapes of her wrath just as much. There was so much human trash in the world! Even if she focussed solely on terrorists, there were so many categories to choose from (ex-terrorists, terrorists-to-be, terrorists in the making, wannabe terrorists, fanatics who supported terrorists etcetera etcetera) that Haruka was sure she would never run out of painkillers, at least not for _that_ sort of headache.

This sort of headache, on the other hand, was eerily reminiscent of the migraine attack which Haruka suffered when she noticed that her lovely _Odango atama_ —the cutest of all kittens—spent all her free time with a certain idol and also blushed whenever that idol's name was brought up. The same troublesome guy was now practising "The Phantom of the Opera" in two voices, acting out the duet between the Phantom and Christine, while another koneko-chan was leaning against the closed door of the music room with flushed cheeks, starry eyes, and a faraway smile—so completely lost in her own fantasies that she neither saw nor heard Haruka, who had just returned from her early morning drive with her favourite red Suzuki Hayabusa.

Under normal circumstances, Haruka would have laughed at the realization that Haibara-san—Gin's cool and collected Sherry!—had succumbed to Seiya's alluring aura just like any other straight woman she knew. Even when he didn't utter a word with that Echo's voice of his, which a musical person like Haruka, lesbian or not lesbian, had to fight hard to resist, Seiya had a certain effect on the pitiable part of female population that was oblivious to all the advantages of being unreservedly gay. As things were, however, Haruka instantly—inelegantly!—broke out in cold sweat and cursed her unsuspecting, dupable self for not anticipating the horror scenario that her two guests, who were whiling away their convalescence at her place, could find solace in each other.

After what she had done to Seiya's parents, it would be a blessing if koneko-chan's infatuation with their youngest son was one-sided like most infatuations were. But now that Haruka's senses had been sharpened by the awareness of a possible romance between them, she could see to her utter dismay that Seiya, defying common sense as usual, was fascinated by the shrunk girl. In retrospect, Haruka should have seen it coming, as opposites like these two invariably fell into each other's orbit the moment they met—especially when both of them were lonely, injured, and grieving. Preoccupied with the Pandora's Box disaster, Haruka had failed to spot all the alarming signs of their unfortunate attraction, which had been so glaring that even Setsuna-san, who was always immersed in her studies and philosophies, would have noticed if she were here and not in New York with Michiru and their little princess.

At least Haruka had valid excuses for her ignorance. Seiya had always been indifferent to all women but his foster sister, Odango atama, and Michiru (Haruka would never forgive Seiya for helping Michiru with her zipper in her dressing room—an image which had been haunting Haruka for years!)… Koneko-chan still looked like a prepubescent kid. And the way it started was so harmless that Haruka could have sworn on both Michiru's head and the life of their little princess that there was absolutely nothing between them but an innocent friendship.

Koneko-chan was suitably depressed after Hattori Heiji's death, blamed herself and—even though she didn't say it explicitly—resented Haruka for the Pandora's Box catastrophe despite conceding that Haruka's actions had saved her. Seiya, who was mourning his parents' death, was hiding his fresh injury from his agent, who was continually badgering her most recalcitrant protégé to revive Three Lights. Since Haruka couldn't let "the kids" roam the isle and draw the attention of the villagers, she had to run errands for them, which she didn't mind because she always enjoyed a drive and because she knew that Seiya and his brothers were more than fit enough to protect koneko-chan if anyone attacked them while she was away. In any case, Seiya and Haibara-san didn't need Haruka as their guardian—and how should Haruka have guessed that she should have played the chaperone for two people who were accustomed to fleeing from romance?

Like a loving parent, Haruka always prepared breakfast for her two wounded guests after her morning workout and her morning drive. Taiki and Yaten bought all of them lunch, which they ate together after Haruka's morning piano practice session. In the afternoons, Taiki and Yaten would practice in the music room while Seiya and the shrunk scientist would be watching them or chat with each other in the adjoining living room. Afterwards, Yaten and Haibara-san would nap (the former because he was vain and needed his beauty sleep, the latter because she was tired from staying up all night), Haruka would clean the house with Seiya's help, and Taiki would voluntarily cook dinner. Much to Haruka's relief, Three Lights (out of consideration for koneko-chan and Haruka?) didn't allude to the Kinmoku tragedy, stoically ignoring their parents' gruesome death as if it had never happened.

On the phone, Michiru would pretend to be jealous and tease Haruka for "cohabiting" with the three Kou brothers—her sworn enemies turned allies—and an underage girl.

Since Yaten and Taiki were accustomed to tailing Seiya and all the three brothers decided to stay away from the ruins of their parents' estate—letting Shizuka-san, their agent, deal with the paperwork so that the reporters wouldn't connect their names to _The Kinmoku Tragedy_ and deduce that Three Lights' parents were the "mad multimillionaire couple who committed suicide by incinerating the whole isle"—they ended up spending the two weeks before their Chicago trip at Haruka's house. At night, after Taiki and Yaten had returned to the hotel, Seiya often sneaked into Hotaru-chan's children's room to visit "Milady de Winter" (as he called Haibara-san), who usually tried to distract herself from her sorrows by reading Hotaru-chan's mystery novels. Whenever she passed the room on the way to her own bedroom, Haruka would hear Seiya reading passages out loud and acting out the characters in different voices for the shrunk scientist just as he did for Odango atama's three-year-old cousin "Chibi Chibi" years ago. Haruka, who was relieved that her two guests got along despite the flesh wound koneko-chan gave the singer when she tried to shoot his oldest brother, only chuckled at the thought that Seiya Kou, heartbreaker extraordinaire, was surprisingly nice and approachable towards the shrunk scientist although he was nonchalant, almost distant, towards other women.

On the third day, after an afternoon piano practice session, Haruka gazed out of the window and saw them together on her beach. In the gathering dusk of the late winter afternoon, koneko-chan was walking beside Seiya at her usual unhurried pace, scrutinizing him with a teasing smirk on her lips while he—ignoring his fresh injury—swiftly strode along the water, stopping every other second to throw pebbles, collect sea shells, draw patterns into the sand, or gesture in the air as if he were debating with himself or explaining a role to her. Distracted and exhausted by her punishing daily schedule, which she had forced upon herself in order to stay in shape, Haruka was only happy that Seiya had finally managed to drag koneko-chan out of the house for a walk during sunset, koneko-chan's favourite time of the day. As long as they were in disguise (a wig and a hat would suffice) and stayed on Haruka's private beach, it was fine to Haruka although she did wonder for a moment why Seiya was on the beach with koneko-chan while Taiki and Yaten were in the music room.

The following weekend, Yaten, the dandy of the group, had to leave for a photo shoot in Osaka; and Taiki, who was worried that his older brother's unbelievable narcissism and singularly rude attitude could get him into trouble, naturally went with Yaten to play the diplomat. Seiya, whose vampire-like recuperative powers induced him to feel restless and penned up in the house and who had set out to plague Haruka with his wacky ideas again, successfully coaxed Haruka into accompanying him on the piano while he sang _The Phantom of the Opera_ using the voices of his "friends and acquaintances." At first, Haruka thought it was harmless fun and grinned to herself when she noticed that he used his agent's voice for Carlotta (the prima donna), Mamoru-san's voice for Raoul (the knight in shining armour), Minako-chan's voice for Meg (the show girl), his own voice for Erik (the hapless musical genius), and Odango atama's voice for Christine (the love interest). It was a game Haruka couldn't deny him after the scandal she had caused to snuff out the ill-starred emotional affair, which would have ruined her favourite koneko-chan's life. Although Seiya was only collateral damage back then, it still saddened Haruka that the break-up had broken his heart so completely that he needed years to recover.

When they arrived at "The Point of No Return," Seiya remarked that Odango's voice didn't fit the dark, passionate character of the song—an observation Haruka wholeheartedly agreed with. "The moment you dare to use Michiru's voice for this song, you're deader than dead!" Haruka threatened, whereupon he only sighed and asked her to stop obsessing about him and her sea empress, as the dressing room incident happened years ago.

While Haruka, who preferred "real" classical music to musicals, didn't like _The Phantom of the Opera_ , she loved Seiya's rendition of the song. Endearingly gentle and yet dangerously persuasive—as though the seduction was an unstoppable natural force—it distinguished itself from all the melodramatic, lewd interpretations she had heard before; and the longing in his voice was so pure and so palpably sincere that Haruka, despite her devotion to Michiru, would have let Seiya seduce her at the end of the song for real if only he didn't have the wrong sex. The only thing which nagged at her was the fact that she couldn't guess whose voice he had chosen for Christine although it sounded strangely familiar—a soft lyric mezzo-soprano, which lacked the dramatic edge for Christine's part.

When Haruka asked Seiya directly about his odd choice, he only flashed her an enigmatic smile and shrugged, claiming that he had chosen it on the spur of the moment and that it didn't matter whose voice he had borrowed. As luck would have it, Haruka stumbled over the truth in the same evening when she heard koneko-chan hum the song in the shower. Instead of realizing that they were in deep trouble, however, Haruka only taunted Seiya for "robbing the cradle" by flirting with a ten-year-old child.

"She is _not_ a child, and she doesn't behave like one," he retorted, in a defensive tone, as Haruka noted. Since the sight of an embarrassed Seiya Kou was a treat, Haruka made a mental note to tease the kid more often.

Their friendship, though unexpected, had seemed perfectly natural to Haruka. Koneko-chan was, after all, less tough than she looked, and Seiya, who had a protective streak, liked children. In a few days, he was going to Chicago to clean up the mess his parents had left behind and then to New York, where his brothers had already found an apartment and a studio for the three of them. Three Lights would be so immersed in the task of staying alive for the first year after the downfall of the Organization that Seiya wouldn't really have the time to miss anyone. Haruka was going to smuggle Haibara-san to Venice as soon as the shrunk scientist was strong enough for the flight. There Haruka and Michiru were going to give the girl the second childhood she deserved, far away from the Pandora's Box tragedy and its immediate aftermath.

Even though koneko-chan didn't know anything about Seiya's family, which not only Three Lights but also Haruka—after seeing koneko-chan's fondness for her knight, whose colour koneko-chan had obviously mistaken for white—tried to hide from her, she knew with certainty that he was not available. Hence Haruka only expected the two of them to exchange a few postcards or mails and flirt with each other a bit whenever Seiya came to Venice for a holiday.

An incident on Sunday night, minor and trivial, began to open Haruka's eyes.

The sun was already setting when Haruka returned from her daily drive in her trusted yellow Ferrari. Taiki and Yaten—who had returned from the photo shoot and decided to stay in their hotel for once instead of coming over because Yaten was in one of his moods—had dumped a few giant bouquets of scarlet roses on Haruka. The roses were all from Seiya's fans, who had read about Yaten's upcoming photo series and sent the flowers to Itabashi Saki-san's photo studio in Osaka in the hope that she would pass them to their reclusive ex-idol Seiya-sama. Yaten, unsentimental as always and also peevish in his exhaustion, had trashed most of the flowers. But Taiki, who couldn't bear to see his brother throw away the four most beautiful bouquets, had talked Haruka into "adopting" them.

Despite their injuries, Seiya and koneko-chan had already cooked dinner and set the table. Pleasantly surprised, Haruka let them pamper her with the excellent five-course meal they had cooked. Afterwards, when the three of them were listening to Michiru's recordings and watching the ending sunset together in the living room, Seiya, who noticed that koneko-chan was cold, got up from the sofa to fetch a blanket for her.

"Don't take it too personally," Haruka warned the chibi-scientist, who was gazing after the former idol with a rare smile on her face. Illuminated by the warm light of the sunset, Haibara-san's face had regained a healthy glow. Since all the girls she knew had crushed on Seiya sooner or later, Haruka might as well protect her future adopted daughter from the notorious heartthrob, who would forget about her as soon as he left the country. "He would fetch a blanket for _me_ if I were wounded and freezing. And he is never going to commit to anyone." Not when he could be sniped by an agent or a hired assassin at any time after leaving Japan, Haruka mentally added.

"Don't worry," Haibara-san coolly assured her. "Roses always have thorns—I won't ever forget that. The more attractive a person is, the more I'll be on my guard. One should never fall in love with a man who is so disturbingly beautiful."

The statement was so typical of koneko-chan that Haruka didn't give it a second thought. Even when Seiya (whose owl-like ears had overheard their talk) returned, draped the blanket over the shrunk scientist, and stroked her cheek with the head of a long-stemmed, thornless scarlet rose, murmuring in his most seductive voice that a few roses didn't have thorns at all, Haruka dismissed it as a flirtatious joke in character of Seiya Kou. It wasn't until she saw how the girl's lips trembled and how her cheeks began to glow in the same shade as the flower in Seiya's hand that it dawned on Haruka that Haibara-san—who only acknowledged Haruka's unearthly (truly unequalled!) handsomeness with a distracted admiring glance when they passed each other in the halls of Infinity and whose gaze never lingered for too long on Yaten Kou's exquisite, too-pretty-to-be-touched face—had just called Seiya "disturbingly beautiful".

x.

"This could be interesting," Michiru only laughed when Haruka—instead of washing her tousled hair like she usually did after her morning drive—ranted about her quandary on the phone. "Since they're polar opposites, it makes sense that they're gravitating towards each other. I bet it will be a tempestuous relationship—for better or for worse."

"This isn't interesting, this is insane! She still doesn't know who he is." Haruka paced the room in distress, trying to keep the talk vague enough to protect all of them in case the line was bugged. "And they both look so happy at the moment that I can't tell her!"

"You mustn't delay this!" Michiru urged. "You must tell her about his parents now before she makes a serious mistake and confesses everything. People in love are always talkative."

"You mean she should simply deceive him?" Haruka frowned. Although they had been with each other for years, Michiru never ceased to surprise her.

"Why not?" Michiru asked, seemingly unaware of the moral implication of what she was suggesting. "He is happy at the moment. She is happy at the moment. If she can live with the truth, he doesn't need to know anything."

"Can you imagine what he will do if he learns the truth after decades of cohabitation or marriage?" Haruka gravely asked. "It looks extremely serious at the moment. At this rate, they're going to elope before she is old enough, for all I know."

"I can't imagine it," Michiru admitted. "But since you two are alike in many ways—"

"I can't even tell you what _I_ would do!" Haruka pressed her aching forehead against the cold window glass, wondering whether Seiya would murder her, leave koneko-chan, shoot Kudo Shinichi, commit suicide, or simple fade away. Or do everything at the same time, which would agree with his character. And yet, Haruka couldn't allow Haibara-san to deceive Seiya for life, could she? "Maybe he can cope with it before he really commits to her. But if he finds out too late, there'll be hell to pay! I have to stop this before it escalates. He is already staring at the bracelet he wanted to dump on me as if he'd like to give it to her." Frustrated, Haruka slammed her fist on the window frame. "You know me. I'm not cut out to deal alone with this! I really wish that you were here…"

x.

 

 


	30. Part Four: For an eternity...

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**For an eternity…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

For an eternity, they only sit with each other in ominous silence, listening to the sound of the hairdryer from the bathroom. Shinichi is still so mortified by his recent discoveries that he can't utter a word while Ai is still too offended by his reaction to her liaison with her infamous womanizer, whom she had tamed, to say anything. Regrettably, Shinichi hasn't prepared any questions for their reunion, expecting that the words will come to him naturally like they always do. But now that his brain feels like a dusty ancient vault which has just been ransacked by a horde of tomb raiders, the only thoughts which emerge with disturbing clarity before Shinichi's inner eye are the zillions of ways in which he can murder Seiya Kou.

Now that he knows about Ai's involvement with the singer, Shinichi begins to see the apartment with different eyes: the mauve curtains, which Ai must have chosen; the two blankets, which Seiya must have bought because she couldn't make do with only one duvet; her small handbag on the hook, which is in the same shade of blue as Seiya's eyes; the way she is accustomed to leaning towards the right side—the side where her singer has been sitting…

Either this is a most elaborate, devilish charade, or Shinichi, for obscure reasons, cannot face the facts, which are lying openly on the table.

"Within days, you said?" he finally asks, taken aback by the sound of his rough, husky voice. He hasn't meant to snap at her, much less insult her—but to his own ears, his tone sounds resentful, even contemptuous. Although his anger may seem irrational in the eyes of a casual observer, she did betray him in more than one way when she disappeared from his life, erased every trace of him from her thoughts, and barged into his life again years afterwards with her crackpot celebrity boyfriend in tow.

"Within two weeks, to be precise." She thoughtfully interlaces her fingers, bends her head, and gazes through the autumnal bouquet of roses on the table into the distance, mentally roaming a past which has nothing to do with him. At least she has the decency to look abashed at a courtship which must have been as imprudent and rash as Seiya's famed impulsiveness. True to his reputation, the Casanova of the twenty-first century didn't miss out on anything, and Shinichi can't forgive Ai for giving herself away so easily when she must have known that he had been combing every inch of the coast and the sea for her.

"So you went with him to Venice after knowing him for two weeks?" he coolly asks.

"You can put it that way," she grins. "But since I was going to Venice with Tenoh-san, anyway, and Seiya initially planned to go to New York, I'd say it was him who went to Venice with me!"

"Did you plan to go to Venice _before_ we went to Paris?" Shinichi's voice has finally regained its sharp edge.

She did, she admits. Knowing he could have talked her out of her decision, she decided to tell him after she had left. For the first time since they met again, she looks apologetic. "But I didn't simply disappear. I've really written two letters, one to you and one to the Professor."

"They never arrived. Why didn't you write more when neither of us responded?" The questions Shinichi wanted to ask are returning to him now although their order is jumbled and he can't get his mind to work properly.

She looks flustered and irritated for a second before she gives him her usual serene smile.

"I've written both of you that you shouldn't contact me for four years until I return to Beika or contact you. I thought it would be safer this way."

Shinichi can tell that she is lying although her last sentence sounds perfectly truthful. Ai doesn't look like a person on the run, and yet she didn't feel safe when she left. When he darts a brief sidelong glance in the direction of the bathroom, she gives an almost imperceptible nod of reassurance. Evidently, Seiya knows more about Pandora's Box than Shinichi thought.

"I've told him all about Pandora's Box and the Organization." Ai pours Shinichi and herself tea before she walks into the kitchen to boil water again. "He knows all about the people in my life as well—Gin, Akemi-nee-san, the Professor, the Detective Boys." She turns to wink at Shinichi before she begins to rummage in the wooden compartment box where she keeps her selection of teas. "He even knows about you."

"What happened at Pandora's Box?" Shinichi initially planned to wait until they were alone to grill Ai about the night of Hattori's death. But since she has already told her boyfriend all her secrets, Shinichi might as well ask her now.

She pauses for a moment to turn her sorrowful gaze on him, which makes her look almost exactly like the ten-year-old Haibara Ai he knew.

"I don't know. I was sleeping in one of the crates where the Organization kept the paper copies of their files when Tenoh-san rescued me." She returns to the table to fetch the empty bowls of zabaglione, brushing against him with the hem of her soft dress. "I asked her for help before we went to Paris… Tenoh-san knew about my situation because we ran into each other in Ichinohashi Park and she immediately guessed everything. She was a very smart cookie. It was impossible to hide anything from her."

Although Shinichi is pleasantly surprised by Ai's frankness, he is also suspicious of it.

"Mitsuhiko has already told me," he says, ignoring his teacup to watch her choose a new flavour after washing and drying the teapot. Peach, he thinks, enjoying the delicious taste of victory for once when his guess proves to be right.

Her eyes darken as she rips open the paper bag and empties its contents into the teapot.

"I could have sworn that I could trust him. But it seems he is more of a chatterbox than I thought."

Since telling her that Mitsuhiko has never betrayed her secret entails admitting not only to her but also to Seiya, who might be overhearing their conversation, that he has been impersonating her for years, Shinichi decides to postpone his confession until later.

"Why did you want to stay in Venice for four years?" he asks instead. "Why not two or three?" Her affair with the singer can't be as serious as she claims if they had set an expiration date for it in advance.

"Meioh-san, a good friend of Kaioh-san's, used to take care of the paperwork in Kaioh-san's academy. Since she decided to finish her studies before going to Venice and it was a pain to do the work via phone and mail, Meioh-san asked me to take over her job for four years. I also thought it was long enough for the blackmailed people to forget about the files in Pandora's Box and short enough for my friends not to die of heartbreak—or, in the Professor's case, of obesity. The job also pays well enough for me not to depend on Seiya completely." If Ai is lying, she is lying very fluently now, and Shinichi discovers to his annoyance that he is in danger of believing any yarn she spins. "But as you can see," she casts a reproachful glance in the direction of the bathroom, "my reputation is ruined since people think I'm Seiya's secretary."

"You can't blame them when you've done your best to make them believe that story," Shinichi gloomily points out. "Even I believed it because this—"he waves his arm in another all-encompassing motion, which prompts her to eye her vase of roses with some trepidation, "—is absolutely unbelievable."

Returning to the table with the full teapot, she breathes a heavy sigh. It started as one of Seiya's jokes and took on a life of its own at La Fenice, she explains, shooting withering glances in the direction of the bathroom. "Last night I told Seiya to lie to the commissario because I didn't want the police to misinterpret the situation and believe that he has murdered Tenoh-san because of me. But after you spilled the water on me, I thought you've already guessed that we're in a relationship." Even before finishing her sentence, she has bent towards him, revealing more cleavage than necessary in her low-cut dress, and—in a hasty attempt to readjust her décolleté—knocked over his cup of warm jasmine scented tea, spilling the tea all over his jeans.

"I'm so sorry." She gives him an angelic smile, for which he could strangle her. "But at least I didn't accidentally spill the scalding hot tea I just brewed on you," she adds in her sweetest voice. "You've been lucky!"

Swallowing his pride because he needs to keep her in a good mood, Shinichi grudgingly accepts the napkin she hands him with an icy glare.

"Why did Tenoh object to this?" he asks, omitting the word "relationship", as their long-time dalliance doesn't deserve the title. "Was it because of your reputation?"

"I don't think so," she leans back and throws a wistful glance in the direction of the bathroom. "She said that I'm wrecking his career by limiting his job opportunities while he is too freedom-loving to be a suitable partner for a woman like me."

The more Shinichi learns about Tenoh Haruka, the more he likes her. Unless she was responsible for Hattori's death, a theory which hasn't been proven yet, she almost begins to look like his ally now.

"Why didn't she save Hattori?" No sooner did he ask Ai the question than Shinichi realizes that she could return his question with the question why _he_ didn't save Hattori and her as promised.

"Because she came too late," she says instead, her words unambiguous and not in the least intended to hurt him. "It took me long to forgive her for that."

"I came late, too," he admits, feeling all the more miserable in view of her unexpected gentleness and generosity. "I didn't come at all, to be honest, because I met Ran on the isle, whose watch was late. She also knocked me out to protect me from the storm."

"I see," Ai calmly says, betraying no strong emotion as if it doesn't matter in the least to her why he didn't rescue Hattori and her. "I'm glad you couldn't come." Scrutinizing him with her at times green, at times blue gaze, she hesitates, apparently debating with herself whether she should elaborate on her stance any further. Then, as though she had seen the tremendous guilt in his eyes, she slowly shakes her head. "I don't think you'd have survived if you'd been present, Kudo… About half an hour before the scheduled explosion, Gin came in a motorboat and surprised us while Hattori was reading the files."

x.

Due to her wound, she was hallucinating and can't remember much, Ai admits. All she can tell is that Hattori had time to place her into an empty crate—which he had prepared for the situation that Shinichi couldn't fetch them in time—and send her overboard with the help of a few ropes before Gin discovered him. "Gin was Anokata's most loyal crow, who would never have given up the files. I don't know what happened. But since the ship exploded as planned and Hattori drowned, I think Hattori jumped into the sea or was hurled overboard. Gin must have stayed with the files until the bombs went off. The Organization had already fallen apart. The FBI was on the way to the isle… After the Boss and the other crows committed suicide, there was nothing left for Gin to hold on."

"Gin could have taken the files to protect himself and escaped in the same motorboat in which he had come." Shinichi frowns at the mental image, as the suspicion that Gin, whose body has never been found, has murdered Hattori and got away with it is killing him. "He would have found buyers anywhere he went if the things Jean Black told us about Pandora's Box was true."

"Pandora's Box"—the explosive storage of the Organization's files—contained not only the history of the Black Organization, its most ambitious projects, and the particulars of its most important codename members but also a welter of confidential, sensitive, invaluable information on the most powerful people, organizations, and governments in the world—Monsieur Jean Black claimed. Political leaders, terrorist groups, intelligence agencies—in short, anyone who exerted a powerful influence on the political world—would be trying to protect their own secrets and exploit the weaknesses of their enemies after the Organization went down. Pandora's Box was also hiding the truth about many thousands of cases and could change the future of all the scapegoats that had been wrongly imprisoned because the Organization bribed or blackmailed the judges and faked the evidence. When Shinichi drove to the isle to call the FBI, Hattori and Ai stayed on the ship to backup the files. Their initial plan was to steal the files and escape in a motorboat, letting the ship explode before the FBI, whose secrets were also stored in Pandora's Box, could arrive—a plan which would have worked out well if it hadn't been for Ai's wound, which forced Shinichi to return to the isle to ask the FBI for an ambulance, the storm, Ran's slow watch, and Ran's karate…

After contemplating Shinichi's words for a moment, Ai shakes her head again and leisurely rises from the sofa.

"Gin didn't just want to survive, Kudo. He really believed in the Organization, in contrast to me. He lived and died for it. Gin would never have sold the files, preferring to stay loyal to Anokata even after their death." In a softer voice, she adds: "You should be grateful that Mori-san saved your life when she knocked you out that night. If you had tried to backup the files, you'd been killed as well."

Motioning to Shinichi that he should wait for a minute (Miyano Shiho still raises her hand, cocks her head, and closes her eyes for a second before she turns away like Haibara Ai always did during that gesture), she disappears in the entry and strides into her… their… bedroom while Shinichi automatically, almost involuntarily, follows her. In the bathroom, Seiya is still blow-drying his hair at glacial pace, and Shinichi is almost thankful that the singer has hair of Rapunzel's length, which needs to be dried for hours on a low setting.

From the entry or corridor, into which the watery light of the afternoon sun is streaming, painting rainbow-coloured patterns on the wet glass roof and on the floor, Shinichi can see Ai sitting on the bed to hunt for something in the top drawer of the bedside table. As myriads of unwanted images race through his mind, Shinichi consciously censors whatever he sees for fear of discovering too many details of her private life. The last time it happened to him was at Pandora's Box while reading the files on Gin and Sherry in the Organization's computer. They had been living together, which deeply upsets Shinichi—not only because of the implications of their love affair but also because of all the inappropriate thoughts he is not supposed to have when he looks at her. It may be only his natural, intellectual, and completely purposeless curiosity… But the moment Shinichi begins to wonder how Ai looks and, more disturbingly, how her skin feels beneath that loosely flowing cashmere dress and how she would react if he (just hypothetically!) held her, kissed her, and tasted every millimetre of her body in that sturdy and much-too-comfortable-looking bed is the moment he—thoroughly ashamed of his fantasies—shakes himself out of his reverie to focus on the mystery.

Perhaps Ai—paranoid as she always is—still believes herself to be in danger, and Seiya and she are only playing a charade, which they've decided to uphold in front of him. Two people easily fit on that queen-sized bed without touching each other, especially when Ai has two wool blankets for herself so that she doesn't need to steal Seiya's duvet. After all, Shinichi and Ai have often shared the same bed on their trips with the Detective Boys as well.

When Ai returns to the corridor with Hattori's lucky charm dangling from her wrist, she pulls the bedroom door shut with a mistrustful gaze. Shinichi can tell that she is afraid of his deduction skills. But whether that's a proof for or against his charade theory, he doesn't know.

"Here," she gingerly places the old, battered lucky charm into his outstretched palm without touching him. "Hattori gave me this when he put me into the crate. His girlfriend should never learn that he has given it away. I suppose he didn't want to be found with the lucky charm around his neck because it would have destroyed her superstition that her love would always save him." She gives Shinichi a faint smile although he can no longer discover any trace of sadness in her eyes. "You see, he was much more sensible than I thought although he was an incurable romantic. He… actually asked me to give it to the person I love most…"

In his trembling hand, the lucky charm begins to swing like a pendulum, and Shinichi flees into the living room before Ai can make fun of his reaction to her words.

"I've tried to give it to Seiya but he didn't want it," she proceeds after following Shinichi to the coffee table and pouring both of them her favourite peach flavoured green tea, darting fleeting glances in the direction of the bathroom as if she weren't only talking to him but also to her singer. "And since Hattori used to tease me about stealing Mori-san's boyfriend whenever we read Sherlock Holmes together, I thought maybe he had hoped that I'd give it to you."

While Shinichi feels immense relief sweep over him at the thought that Hattori's lucky charm will never be hanging around Seiya Kou's neck, he is also devastated by Ai's confession that she has tried to put it on the singer. If this isn't a charade at all but only the brutal, sobering, stark reality—a possibility he can no longer ignore—Shinichi wonders why Tenoh Haruka hadn't put a stop to it when it started at her place. If Tenoh had intervened in time and separated Ai from Seiya before the notorious playboy could whisk her off, Ai would never have fallen in love, Seiya would enjoy all the freedom he wants, and Shinichi wouldn't have to face the dilemma of arresting Ai's live-in boyfriend or abetting a murderer.

x.


	31. Part Four: Usually it was a tragedy...

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**Usually it was a tragedy…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Usually it was a tragedy that lovers split up. Sometimes, it was a tragedy that lovers got together. It wasn't like Haruka hadn't tried to break them up—it was almost farcical how things backfired because she had tried so hard. In retrospect—although the absurd situation had been a strain on her nerves before it was finally resolved—Michiru was almost amused by Haruka's failure…

x.

Answering Haruka's indirect plea, Michiru had left Hotaru-chan with Setsuna-san in New York and jumped into the first flight to Japan without further ado despite knowing that she would lose days of practice before her next concert. It didn't bother Michiru, as she had learned to practice mentally whenever she couldn't play the violin. Sketching the passengers on the plane, Michiru weighed up all the pros and cons of Seiya-kun and Shiho-chan's budding romance. While she could see why Haruka objected to it, she failed to comprehend Haruka's moral dilemma.

Lying to Seiya-kun was undoubtedly the best solution for the time being—Michiru thought while sketching the stewardess—and since love should always be free despite its social aspect, Shiho-chan should be allowed to make her own decision. Admittedly, Michiru supported Haruka when Haruka prevented Usagi from straying because Usagi was engaged to Mamoru-san and being Seiya-kun's girlfriend would have been a deadly peril, to say the least. But Michiru was convinced that separating Seiya-kun and Shiho-chan, who were both unattached and old enough to know what they wanted, would be wrong now that the Organization had been dismantled.

"I can't believe she has fallen in love with him so fast!" Haruka said with audible resentment as they were racing home in Haruka's favourite canary-yellow Ferrari at what felt like supersonic speed. Michiru, who prided herself to be the only woman who had ever sat in Haruka's passenger seat without getting palpitations, shot her partner a bewildered look, as she couldn't comprehend Haruka's anger. "I could have sworn that she was deeply, hopelessly in love with Kudo Shinichi only one week ago!"

The heady scent of roses gave Michiru headaches after the long flight. Irritated by Haruka's mood and the welcome kisses she should have received but didn't get, Michiru leaned back into the leather seat with a sigh. Perhaps she should be grateful that Haruka had gallantly fetched her from the airport—even brought her a few bouquets of fragrant roses, which belonged to Seiya-kun. Itabashi Saki-san, _Naked's_ star photographer, had been spamming him with scarlet roses for days, Haruka complained with a sidelong glance at the roses on Michiru's lap. To be precise: Seiya-kun's fans had sent them to Saki-san, who had asked Yaten-kun to give them to Taiki-san, who had ordered the hotel to send Haruka the roses whenever they arrived. Perhaps Michiru could put them to good use by sketching them.

"She can't wait for him forever." Michiru tossed the bouquets of roses she was holding on the backseat to free her hands so that she could stroke Haruka's knee. By the time Kudo-kun finally came to his senses—Michiru remarked—Shiho-chan would already be on her deathbed or pushing up daisies. "Shiho-chan isn't the type that idealizes unrequited love. After being unhappily in love with Kudo-kun for over three years, she must have decided that it's time for her to move on."

"She could have waited until we're in Venice before she falls in love anew—with an _eligible_ guy or girl… And I don't get why it has to be Seiya, who would ruin her life." In answer to Michiru's comment that Haruka should be accustomed to the sight of girls swooning over Seiya for now, Haruka elaborates: "But Haibara-san doesn't care about looks! She has never fallen for a pretty face before."

"Since Kudo Shinichi is a rather handsome man, I'm sure she does have a weakness for beauty," Michiru points out, trying to sound as casual as possible so as not to trigger Haruka's jealousy, which she didn't want to arouse now. "But I don't think it's just about Seiya-kun's looks. If she had only wanted a pretty face to gaze at, she might as well have fallen in love with Yaten-kun."

"It must be Seiya's voice," Haruka muses, "or his overall attractiveness. Anyhow, it can't be his character since she doesn't know him at all."

"A few traits are so obvious she must have noticed them by now. He is dangerously charming but so independent that he can never be conquered. Those qualities are troublesome in a husband but very appealing in a no-strings-attached lover." Michiru inwardly winced, regretting that she had been thinking aloud, as Haruka was extremely competitive when it came to Seiya-kun. To her surprise, however, Haruka didn't rage about Michiru's alleged attraction towards the former idol as she usually did but only murmured with a frown: "But she has never fallen in love with me although I'm independent as well…"

Being with Haruka was like chasing the wind, Michiru thought, closing her eyes while the wind tore at her hair and ruined her perfect hairdo. Haruka kissed any interesting girl she met, openly flirted with their mutual friends, and was even capable of staying away for one or two nights to date other women or just to enjoy her freedom whenever Michiru was obsessively painting or preparing for a show or a concert to pay attention to her. Every time Michiru threw a jealous fit, Haruka would accuse Michiru of getting lost in her artistic world, leaving Haruka, who was starving for her love, alone. Still, being Haruka's life partner was never a chore, for Haruka's charm and her attentiveness—especially her innate ability to touch Michiru on a deep, instinctive level—were more than enough to recompense Michiru for the regular heartache Haruka caused.

As much as Haruka loved her freedom, she also loved Michiru and Hotaru-chan enough to sacrifice a great deal of it. Consequently, Haruka had made her little family her top priority. It was Michiru (and Michiru alone), whom Haruka attended social events with, whose hand Haruka held when they were walking along the beach, and whom Haruka chose as her partner to raise Hotaru-chan. Despite her flirtatiousness and her occasional infidelity, Haruka was genuinely caring and loyal to the core. For this reason, Michiru tried to suppress her jealousy every time Haruka found a new infatuation to pursue even though Michiru couldn't deny that it hurt.

There had been exceptions, however… Usagi—"Odango atama"—wasn't the usual crush that came and passed. It was blindingly obvious that Haruka cared about Usagi as much as she cared about Michiru, and Michiru had more than once wondered how things would have been if Haruka hadn't been convinced that Mamoru-san was Usagi's ideal prince. For all her love of adventure and her lust for life, Usagi was a sheltered princess who demanded—even needed—lifelong commitment and security. And while Haruka fitted the role of a girl's white knight perfectly, commitment and monogamy weren't in Haruka's repertory. After a fierce struggle, which almost led to the demise of Haruka and Michiru's relationship, Haruka finally realized that she could never be the one who rescued _and_ marry the girl.

Sometimes Michiru wondered whether Mamoru-san was really as naive as he looked or whether he had known about his girlfriend's crush on Haruka as well. If he had been aware of it, he hadn't shown his worries and even carelessly left Usagi—his dependent, immature, passionate fiancée—alone to go abroad for a year.

Michiru had been mortified to hear about his decision at first, fearing that, now that Mamoru-san was out of the way, Haruka would lose her inner battle and leave Michiru to pursue Usagi. To Michiru's relief, Haruka kept a safe distance. Michiru didn't flatter herself that Haruka did it for the sake of their relationship, as Haruka had been recklessly flirting with Usagi in front of Michiru more than once. While fidelity in the conventional sense of the word wasn't exactly Haruka's forte, Hotaru-chan, whom they had adopted in the meantime, was the one person Haruka could never hurt, the link which neither Haruka nor Michiru could ever sever. Knowing Haruka well, Michiru gave her all the freedom she needed, for Haruka would always return to her.

The situation escalated when Seiya-kun entered the scene. After the initial shock at his family background and the fear that Haruka could kill him in revenge for her late mother, Michiru watched the palpable mounting tension between Seiya-kun and her life partner with morbid interest. It was only natural that Haruka, who had never had to face strong competition before, hated Seiya-kun the moment he burst into their circle of friends like a glittering meteor, taunted Haruka with his self-deprecating humour and his exasperating confidence, challenged her status as the fastest star athlete, and turned the heads of all the girls who had been orbiting around Haruka. To make matters worse, Seiya-kun dared to flirt outrageously with the two women Haruka loved. But while Michiru, who was cautious about attractive men in general and attractive, popular male actors in particular, only used Seiya-kun to tease Haruka in revenge for her flirts, Usagi began to fall in love.

Haruka had always claimed that she had only protected Usagi for Mamoru-san, whose maturity and pragmatism was a much better match for Usagi than Seiya-kun's reckless abandon and unmanageable temperament. Listening to Haruka's rant about how two happy-go-lucky airheads like Usagi and Seiya-kun would unavoidably wreck each other's lives, Michiru bit back the remark that Haruka seemed oddly passionate about separating the pair. To all their friends, it might have looked like Haruka had created the scandal and forced Seiya-kun to retreat because she was convinced that Seiya-kun was the wrong choice for the girl. And sometimes, Michiru strongly suspected that Haruka tried to make herself believe the lie. Having watched Haruka for so long, however, Michiru knew that Haruka couldn't bear to see Seiya-kun snatch away the woman she had to give up. After deciding that Mamoru-san—the safe choice who could never replace Haruka as the romantic, wild, unattainable bad boy in Usagi's heart—was the right man to take care of her "koneko-chan" for her, Haruka wouldn't accept losing Usagi to a man who resembled Haruka so much.

x.

After carrying Michiru's luggage into the house, Haruka hadn't even wasted a minute but immediately rushed to the veranda, where Shiho-chan was sitting at the breakfast table, reading the news.

"You should put on a coat or at least button up your cardigan," Haruka smiled, ruffling Shiho-chan's shoulder-length black wig, which made the girl look almost like Hotaru-chan.

"Here is the coat," Seiya-kun, who was coming down the stairs just when Michiru had finished washing her hands at the kitchen sink, remarked, presenting a small red coat to no one in particular. Whenever they met, Michiru's heart raced and stopped in turn the moment she heard his lovely, exquisite, bewitching, iconic voice. It was a deadly weapon Seiya-kun automatically used without being aware of it, and Michiru frowned at the discovery that Haruka might be right that Shiho-chan had become addicted to his voice when she was injured and vulnerable.

"We had to wash it this morning because I accidentally stained it with my blood." Seiya-kun indicated his injury, which Michiru would never have guessed after seeing his smooth gait. Draping the coat over the shoulders of the now black-haired girl, who raised her head to smile at him, he turned to give Michiru a knowing wink. "Did Haruka-san confuse the road with the track again? It's rare to see you so dishevelled although it suits you."

"You shouldn't have let koneko-chan go out in this weather without a jacket!" Haruka snapped at Seiya-kun, ignoring his remark about her reckless driving. "Since koneko-chan is still so weak, she could catch pneumonia before we fly to Venice."

"We wanted to go for a walk before you came back, and I didn't expect that she'd go out before I've fetched her coat for her," Seiya-kun grudgingly admitted. "Risking her health just to fetch the mail… But it must be impossible to keep a clear head when the motivation is so strong." He pointed at the newspaper in Shiho-chan's hands with a wry smile. "Kudo Shinichi, the 'saviour of the police force, who has singlehandedly brought down the Black Organization,' versus a simple coat. Apparently, Kudo Shinichi won."

"It doesn't change the fact that you're still crappy at taking care of others," Haruka coldly said, and Michiru could see anger flare in Seiya-kun's eyes before he contained himself (to spare Michiru or Shiho-chan the drama?) and shrugged.

"It takes a temperature gap to feel cold." He gave Shiho-chan a teasing smile. "Since Milady de Winter is just as cool as this weather, I think she'll be fine."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Shiho-san, who had been darting Seiya-kun and Michiru curious glances, rolled the newspaper together to strike Seiya-kun with unexpected force, who evaded her and caught the roll. Ignoring Haruka's outstretched hand, Shiho-chan slowly pushed herself up from the chair and approached Michiru with a faint smile, eyeing Michiru's messy bun and her elegant new dress beneath her long white coat. "I'm glad to see you're already back from New York." She shot Seiya-kun an inquisitive, almost mistrustful gaze. "Although I'm surprised because Tenoh-san said you'd be staying there for another week…"

Later, when Michiru and Shiho-chan took off their coats in the entry, Haruka hastened to Shiho-chan's side to help her hang her coat on the rack. Before Shiho-chan could join Seiya-kun, who was waiting for her at the door to the living room, Haruka had already put her hand on the girl's shoulder to usher her to the table, which Shiho-chan and Seiya-kun had set before Haruka and Michiru's arrival. Noticing that Michiru had been left alone, Seiya-kun flashed Michiru a conspiratorial smile and offered her his hand. "If Haruka-san neglects you just to play the chaperone for us," he whispered into Michiru's ear, "it's time for revenge!"

Smiling to herself as she caught a whiff of his alluring fragrance, which smelled like a vague promise of freedom and eternal romance, Michiru could see in her peripheral vision that Haruka had just brushed her thumb against Shiho-chan's fine cheekbone in an unmistakably flirtatious gesture while Shiho-chan, who wore an expression which almost resembled despair, was staring at Seiya-kun and her.

x.

Depressingly, their "revenge" only made a superficial impression on Haruka, who was usually extremely jealous but had become so immersed in the task of keeping her "koneko-chan" away from the source of danger that she only shot Michiru and Seiya-kun indulgent smiles when they playfully flirted with each other during lunch. Misreading the situation, Haruka believed that Michiru was trying to distract Seiya-kun for her, and Michiru wondered why she couldn't tell what role she played in this farce, in which she—despite Seiya-kun's flattering attention—had begun to feel like the fifth wheel.

Casting furtive glances into the silver mirror behind Haruka, Michiru once again assured herself that, if she asked the "mirror, mirror on the wall" who the fairest of all was, it would tell her without hesitation that the fairest was Kaioh Michiru, the most talented, most elegant, and most graceful woman who had ever graced earth with the touch of her dainty feet. And yet Michiru was forced to watch her charming life partner showering the shrunk scientist with caring, almost loving gestures while studiously ignoring Michiru's flirt with an exceedingly attractive man, who only pretended to be romantically interested in Michiru.

After lunch, Michiru and Seiya-kun retreated to the bookshelves to banter about musical notations and to exchange further flatteries, leaving Haruka and Shiho-chan locked in a tête-à-tête at the coffee table. Although Seiya-kun was trying to give Michiru his undivided attention, it was almost insulting how often he grinned to himself because he could feel Shiho-chan's burning gaze on his face. Instead of irritating Haruka, he had accidentally made Shiho-chan jealous. And from the look of his twinkling eyes, he enjoyed the situation too much for Michiru's liking.

Haruka, on the other hand, was visibly happy that Michiru and Seiya had left her koneko-chan and her alone, and Michiru uneasily recalled that Haruka had already pursued Shiho-chan at Infinity, which Michiru always attributed to Shiho-chan's nonchalance. Once again, Haruka couldn't tolerate losing a girl she couldn't conquer to her old rival, Michiru realized. That's why Haruka's objection to their blossoming romance felt so excessive and personal.

x.

Yaten-kun and Taiki-san, who had gone to Tokyo to visit Usagi and her friends for two days, would return tonight in time for dinner, Seiya-kun informed Michiru, and it startled Michiru that Seiya-kun hadn't gone to Tokyo as well. He must be avoiding Usagi or grown so attached to Shiho-chan that he didn't want to leave even when it was only for two days, Michiru thought, although neither explanation made sense in view of Seiya-kun's character.

"A former mediator of my parents has heard that my name has been mentioned in connection with Pandora's Box," Seiya-kun admitted when Michiru confronted him. They were now leaning against the window at the giant speakers, from which Schubert's "Unfinished" was streaming into the vast room, hiding their hushed whispers behind its haunting, mournful tune.

"I'm still waiting for another informant to verify the news." Touching his finger to his lips, he sneaked a surreptitious glance at Shiho-chan and Haruka, who were playing cards at the table, before he led Michiru to the winter garden, which looked out to the beach. Skipping the redundant explanation that it would be a death sentence he was unlikely to escape in the long run, he lightly added, "Since I don't want to cause trouble, I'm going to leave the country on Friday at the latest. I've left the birthday presents for Hotaru-chan in the drawer of her bedside table although we still have to wrap them."

Her horror must have looked like a grotesque mask on her face, for he gave a genuine laugh and then smiled into the afternoon sun. With a shrug as if his mind were as clear as the sky, which was devoid of clouds, he indicated Shiho-chan with a movement of his head. "If I'm still alive when she arrives in Venice, I'm going to give her a call."

"You're going to leave her behind just like that? With a phone call?" Michiru asked with a sorrowful glance at Shiho-chan, who was watching them with utter confusion in her eyes.

"I won't drag anyone into this in the name of love," Seiya-kun nonchalantly said, retreating into his shell. "And I don't think you should tell her that there must be a traitor among us."

x.

In the late afternoon, when the sun began to set and to dye the sky gold, orange, and red, Seiya-kun sat down at Haruka's old Steinway to accompany himself since Haruka absolutely refused to aid and abet him during his quest to sight-read all the hits of the last decades when her classically trained ears could barely stand the best musicals like _My Fair Lady_. Seiya-kun's singing had always been enchanting in the truest sense of the word, and Michiru was amazed to learn that his piano skills were much better than expected. Even though he was too inexperienced to be called a virtuoso, his touch was just as sensitive as Haruka's. Mesmerized by the music, Michiru needed a while to grasp that Shiho-chan, who had turned her back to the piano and was pretending to read, looked devastated by the songs because she wrongly assumed that he was singing to Michiru.

"Please save me!" Haruka murmured, dragging Michiru by her arm into the corridor. "Now that Seiya has gone through all the musicals and operas he could find in the library, he is tackling the cheesy oldies. I should have prevented Setsuna-san from giving Hotaru-chan the compilation of the greatest hits from the sixties to the present! We'll have to endure this brutal torture for the rest of the week if you don't come up with a new strategy."

"It's simple," Michiru smiled, omitting to mention that Haruka's fears were unfounded because Seiya-kun didn't plan to elope with Shiho-chan at all. "Just ask Shiho-chan to take the antidote now and give them a room. I bet both of them will be mute for days!"

"Very funny!" Haruka glared at her. "It's our future adopted daughter you're talking about. I'm not going to give her to _him_ out of all people!"

Contrary to her words, Haruka didn't treat Shiho-chan like a daughter, Michiru thought with bitterness. Haruka didn't even try to keep a physical distance like Seiya-kun, who barely brushed against the girl, but always found an excuse to touch her. To Michiru, jealousy was an old acquaintance she had to face at least once a week. But one of the perks of its regularity was that Michiru had hardened and grown accustomed to dealing with it.

x.

Since Haruka, who was still playing cards with Shiho-chan, had forgotten the roses on the backseat, Michiru and Seiya-kun went to the garage to fetch them before dinner. Their timing was excellent, as Taiki-san and Yaten-kun had arrived via boat by the time they returned to the house. True to their characters, Taiki-san greeted Michiru with a polite—albeit cool—nod and a slight bow while Yaten-kun only flipped his silver ponytail, shot her a contemptuous smirk, and shuddered. "I see you still have a weakness for ugly pale lipsticks which make you look like a doll." He drawled the last word, letting his voice shift from pleasantly husky to crystal clear within the same sentence. "It's incomprehensible to me how an artist like you could be such a crashing bore!"

Whenever she met the shrimp, Michiru (the ladylike, well-behaved, mild-mannered Kaioh Michiru!) was in danger of morphing into one of the Furies or Erynies—the vengeful deities in Greco-Roman Mythology. It didn't help that Yaten-kun was one of the most glamorous people (and certainly the most vain person) alive, whose catlike charm and unerring sense of style challenged Michiru's ethereal beauty. Oddly enough, he vaguely reminded Michiru of Shiho-chan although the scientist was fairly pleasant. The same languid gestures and celebrity attitude, the same deceiving vulnerable prettiness, the same verbal aggression and bluntness whenever they were in one of their moods, the same rotten temper and sarcasm combined with the same unswerving loyalty…

"Yaten, please!" Taiki-san half-heartedly chided his brother.

Suppressing the urge to slam her high heel on Yaten-kun's professionally manicured toes, Michiru silently watched the oldest and coldest of the three brothers as he turned his tea-green gaze to Seiya-kun. When Seiya-kun, who was carrying the bouquets of flowers in one arm and checking messages on his phone with his free hand, turned to meet his brother's gaze, Yaten-kun's gloomy eyes instantly lit up.

As cool and aloof the two older Kou brothers were to the rest of the world, they were warm and almost abnormally caring towards the people in their family. Now that Kakyuu-san was in a coma and their foster parents were dead, Seiya-kun was the sole receiver of their love and affection.

"Looks like you've recovered," Yaten-kun gently, even tenderly, observed. And the sun, which had already set and was only illuminating the horizon in the afterglow of twilight, seemed to rise once more in this wintry afternoon as his rosy lips stretched into a rare, sweet smile.

Taiki-san, who no longer had the motivation to put on a gallant facade, ignored Michiru to rush to Seiya-kun's side. Sandwiched between his taller and his shorter brother, Seiya-kun read the messages and then the love letters, which were attached to the bouquets, aloud—darting Michiru quick, sharp glances from his vivid blue eyes, whose colour and expression had taken on the quality of glacial ice.

"'Please say _yes_ '… 'I love you so much. I'd say _yes_ to you immediately if you asked me'… 'If you don't say _yes_ , I'll die immediately'…" He stressed all the yess'es by lingering on them longer than necessary, raising his eyes to exchange a meaningful gaze with Taiki-san, who grimly nodded in response.

"You have three very passionate fans," Michiru couldn't resist saying as she took off her coat to hang it on the coat rack.

"I suppose you can call them 'fans'," Seiya-kun quietly said, whereupon Michiru blinked at him in surprise, wondering why his voice suddenly sounded so uncommonly tired. "This morning, all the others I asked have sent me similar messages as well."

It took Michiru a beat to grasp that the letters sounded rather awkward and another beat to deduce what Seiya-kun's words implied. Haruka, who was leaning against the door to the living room with folded arms, put it into words before Michiru could ask Seiya-kun whether the letters were messages from his allies and the mediators who once worked for his family. "So your informants have verified that your name has been sent to all the blackmailed big names in Pandora's Box?" In response to Seiya-kun's almost imperceptible nod, Haruka sighed. "I'll let you stay here for another week to prepare for the aftermath and write your will, if you wish. But since you're doomed, I can't let you bring your war to us." Flashing him a forced smile, she attempted a joke: "I can also give you a painless, quick death now before they can get you."

"Haruka!" Michiru winced at her life partner's black humour. "Of course he can stay here until Christmas—until Hotaru-chan comes back." Giving all the three brothers an apologetic smile, she hesitantly elaborates, "We'll help you leave the country and change your identities, and money won't ever be an issue—but we can't let you endanger her or sacrifice our group for a lost cause."

"Congratulations!" Yaten-kun exploded, automatically taking a fighting stance as Seiya-kun strolled into the kitchen to place the roses into the sink. "Your schemes have worked out well—but unfortunately you won't live long enough to enjoy your files!" Turning to Michiru with narrowed eyes, the oldest Light hissed, "You can drop your goodie two-shoes act now. Don't pretend to be so innocent and kind when you two have plotted this all along!"

Usually, Taiki-san would intervene and try to prevent his older brother from offending all their friends and acquaintances. Hence it staggered Michiru that he didn't say anything this time. Towering over the coatrack at the entrance with his hands hidden in the deep pockets of his long beige trench coat, where he is holding something Michiru can only guess, he intently gazed at Haruka and Michiru with mysteriously shimmering eyes as a deathly silence hung over the spacious, cozy entry.

"One insult more to Michiru, cutie, and I'll put you to sleep," Haruka said in a low voice. On her lover's face, Michiru could see the same surprise and indignation, which must mirror her own. "I've treated you as my welcome, honoured guests for days although none of you deserve it. But if you want to be reunited with your parents so badly, I'll fulfil your wish now!"

To Michiru's horror, Haruka wasn't making empty threats, as her position had already shifted from languidly relaxed to watchfully neutral. Seiya-kun, meanwhile, had slowly raised his palm, preventing his two brothers from reacting rashly to Haruka's movement, and was now scrutinizing Haruka and Michiru with observant eyes. The flippant, cheery actor, who had sung and danced his way from the streets to the wide screen had disappeared—replaced by his serious, quick-witted, implacably decisive alter ego.

"My parents' 'suicides' seemed so swift and so perfectly timed: just when the secret services brought down the Organization. You must admit it would have been a very shrewd move," Seiya-kun calmly noted. "Backing up the files, eliminating the crows and the detective, and impersonating me to ensure the safety of your group at the same time." Giving Haruka a serene smile, which induced Taiki-san and Yaten-kun to relax, Seiya-kun stepped forward and extended his hand. "I'm so glad that you didn't stoop to it!"

Unnerved by the realization that Taiki-san and Yaten-kun had been blocking the way to the front door and the stairs and that Seiya-kun had moved out of the line when he put down the roses—leaving Haruka, who was standing at the living room, exposed in case Taiki-san had to throw the knives or whatever he was hiding, Michiru turned to her lover, on whose face the same realization dawned. Haruka, who had been under close constant surveillance during the last days, was entirely unaware of the fact that Three Lights had used Seiya-kun's injury to spy on her until they were sure that she wasn't the traitor. After all the efforts Usagi and Seiya-kun had made to bridge the differences and to put aside the grudges of the past, one little traitor was enough to expose how frail the peace between them was.

x.

Shiho-chan hadn't witnessed the scene, to Michiru's relief, as she had been in the shower when it happened. Dinner came and passed without Michiru being aware of what she had eaten. Gobbling down a glass of water and two capsules of the painkillers Shiho had given her against her headaches in one unladylike gulp (Haruka was suffering from migraines as well but paranoiacally stayed away from any sort of drug which could interfere with her quick reflexes), Michiru darkly contemplated the idea that one of the friends she had trusted with her life could be a traitor.

"What are you going to do now?" Shiho-chan had asked Seiya-kun during dinner—after Michiru had brutally informed her that Seiya-kun's name had been mentioned in the same sentence as Pandora's Box and after Haruka had reluctantly conceded that Seiya-kun, no matter how tough he was, was unlikely to survive very long if everyone who was interested in the files was searching for him. Haruka, who was softer than Michiru despite her hard facade, would have liked to hide the news while Michiru stood firmly on the principle that knowledge was always better than ignorance. After all, the girl had to know the truth so that she could brace herself for his assassination, which was unavoidable in the not-too-distant future.

"I'm going to bluff my way out of this," Seiya-kun had responded, looking the picture of insouciance although his appetite seemed more hearty than usual. "Since only my name has been attached to Pandora's Box, there's no sense in dragging Taiki and Yaten down with me." He was going to enjoy a nice long holiday abroad and pretend to live off the blackmailed people—he buoyantly added—mimicking the excessively hedonistic playboy they all expected him to be.

When Yaten-kun and Taiki-san protested, citing the musketeer motto they had lived by since they were seven, Seiya-kun only smirked and claimed that it was easier for him if they didn't put the crippling burden of protecting two neurotic siblings on his shoulders and made themselves useful instead by resuming their careers to finance his lavish lifestyle. It would also create the impression that they weren't involved in the Pandora's Box affair at all or were so fed up with his grand plans that they had distanced themselves from him to live their own lives. Apart from that, they all had to resume living and do whatever they enjoyed doing because giving up their identities and hiding for years would only be a waste of time.

"You plan won't work in the long run," Michiru told Seiya-kun on the way to her bedroom on the third floor, before they parted at the stairs.

"Probably not," he admitted. "But maybe it will work for a few years… long enough to find the traitor in _your_ group."

Her fists had clenched in anger but her mind had to admit that he was right. Taiki-san and Yaten-kun loved Seiya-kun more than their own lives, which they had already proven to him in many life-or-death situations—and it was simply ridiculous to assume that any of Usagi's friends would ever harm Seiya-kun. Usagi, who would never sacrifice a human life, still loved him dearly; Minako-chan had a long-time crush on all the three brothers; Rei-chan, who could never take her eyes off Seiya-kun, was so fiercely loyal that she would shoot anyone who tried to harm a hair on his head; Ami-chan still nurtured a secret infatuation on Taiki-san; and Makoto-chan was so frank and honest that she wasn't even able to fake a smile…

No intermediary or informant had known that Seiya-kun was near the ship when it exploded. If none of Usagi's girls had accidentally disclosed the information to their informants and allies, that left only Michiru and Haruka's little group or—when it came down to the hard facts—only Setsuna-san, Michiru, and Haruka. Haruka looked genuinely surprised when Three Lights confronted her; and Setsuna-san, no matter how protective she was when it came to their little "family", certainly couldn't have hated Seiya-kun enough to provoke this situation if she had known that he would be hunted down, perhaps even tortured, and eventually murdered by the people his parents had blackmailed.

Letting herself sink into Haruka's warm, familiar arms, which enveloped her from behind, Michiru wept bitter tears for the death of trust, which had been a safety net she could always rely on whenever she was in danger. "All for one and one for all" had been tainted by one little traitor, who must have spied on her family when they didn't pay attention and who had used the tension between Haruka and Seiya-kun to steal the files, make Seiya-kun the scapegoat, and erode their friends' implicit trust in Haruka in the same move. Trembling with rage, Michiru swore on everything she believed in that she would make the rat pay with interest for this.

It was out of the question that she let him deal alone with a problem for which Haruka, Setsuna-san, and she should take responsibility, Michiru had told Seiya-kun before climbing the stairs to her bedroom, where Haruka was waiting for her. "So, in other words: If you can really find a traitor in our group, I expect you to inform me!"

x.


	32. Part Four: The tall story...

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**The tall story…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

The tall story that Hattori had been forced to jump overboard or had been thrown overboard by Gin doesn't make sense to Shinichi. Gin, who had always carried a handgun whenever Shinichi saw him, would simply have shot Hattori if they had met, as Hattori would have been too stubborn to give up the files but was too experienced at hand-to-hand combat to be hurled overboard so easily. And since Shinichi is sure that Ai wouldn't believe the tale either if he had tried to sell it to her, Shinichi has the sneaking suspicion that Ai knows more about Hattori's death than she's letting on.

Watching the narrow stripes of the afternoon light play on the reflective surface of Hattori's lucky charm, Shinichi tries to visualize the situation at Pandora's Box. What could have induced Hattori to act like he did although he must have known that Ai's chance of survival without him was almost zero? If Gin had really appeared in a motorboat and Hattori had had enough time to place Ai into a crate, it would have been more like Hattori to hide Ai and to ambush Gin. Since Hattori was sure of his fighting skills after years of serious kendo training, Shinichi doubts that Hattori would have gone down without a fight. In the alternative scenario in which Hattori and Ai had really been surprised by Gin without having time to react, they would most likely have been shot.

Nonetheless, Shinichi can't ignore the possibility that Gin was unarmed for unknown reason. There was no bullet wound on Hattori's body. The bruises, which Shinichi has ascribed to the rocks Hattori had been washed against, on the other hand, could have been caused by a blunt object.

"How good was Gin at close combat?"

The glint in Ai's eyes and the slight tremor of her hands suggest that she knows exactly what Shinichi is thinking of.

"Very good. And there was no Shinai on the ship for Hattori to use."

Perhaps Ai isn't lying to him. But Shinichi can't accept the truth about Hattori's death just as he is still struggling to digest the idea that she might really be cohabiting with her dubious ex-idol. The knowledge that his friend must have been murdered and that he could have prevented it if only he had returned to the ship in time is threatening to linger forever in the back of his clouded mind.

"I'm going to return this to Toyama!" Forcing himself to snap out of the trance, Shinichi indicates the battered lucky charm, which looks like it has been cleaned and polished not long ago. Ai must have intended to give it to him after her time in Venice is over. "You said that he didn't want Toyama to know that he had given it away, but I think it will be of great consolation to her that her lucky charm has saved you." If Ai's guess was right and Hattori expected her to give his lucky charm to Shinichi, Hattori might have predicted that Shinichi would return it to Toyama after Toyama has recovered and moved on with her life.

"You can do whatever you want with it. It's yours now."

"Why didn't _he_ want to have it?" Shinichi scrutinizes Ai with open curiosity while the low buzz of the hairdryer from the bathroom is still accompanying their conversation. Even if Seiya scorns superstitions, Shinichi can't fathom why the singer has rejected such a love declaration.

"I wanted to give it to him as a goodbye gift before we parted." Her lips curve into a mischievous smile. "But he said it was too little and demanded something else instead." Smirking at the bathroom door, she adds, "As you must have noticed by now, modesty is not his forte."

Sensing that he wouldn't like the answer if he asked her what Seiya Kou received as a replacement for the lucky charm, Shinichi decides to skip that question. Also, it has begun to irritate him that Ai always draws Seiya into their conversation as if the singer could hear every word she says.

x _._

Although her boyfriend is drying his hair at the moment, Shiho doesn't doubt that he can hear every single sound from the living room despite the relentless ostinato of the hairdryer. Knowing how little time his ponytail needs to dry since it only consists of the lower layers of his hair, she also suspects that Seiya has left the hairdryer on but is whiling away the waiting time with something else. It wouldn't surprise her if he is checking messages on his phone, which he has left in the bathroom after his agent's call.

In a way, Seiya's jealousy at (and concern for?) Kudo is almost touching. When he was washing her hair in the bathtub—their shower session got out of hand so that they ended up sharing a bath afterwards—Seiya once again tried to coax and bribe her into promising that she would tell Kudo in no uncertain terms where her priorities lay. Naturally, Shiho didn't promise anything but declared that she would go out with any man she liked if she got bored watching him feign love and despair onstage. After years of insecurity because almost every woman she meets immediately go for her boyfriend, who is too flirtatious and adventurous for Shiho's liking, Shiho gets immense satisfaction from seeing their roles reversed. Her self-assured, relaxed, and perpetually happy "employer" is feeling threatened by an imagined romance between Kudo and her.

Still, Kudo's inability to accept their relationship puzzles Shiho, who has been counting her detective's many frowns, which have been flitting across his brows as he cast disapproving glances at the furniture, the decoration, the flowers—even the musical instruments in their apartment. Now that Shiho knows that Kudo believed her to be Seiya's secretary, she is horrified by the thought that she might have turned into a "kept woman" in Kudo's eyes—a misunderstanding she has tried to clear up by telling him about her job at the academy.

In truth, even with her three jobs, Shiho has never earned much—at least not enough to make a living in this city. It would have been easier if she hadn't been forced to stay low key for fear of attracting the attention of the ex-Organization members who once worked in her lab. Seiya, who doesn't care about the prosaic aspects of life, has automatically given her all the details of his bank accounts because he is the opinion that they should share his finances just as they share his apartment. After all, they both believe that a romantic relationship should never resemble a business transaction.

More than once Shiho has overheard Gorowitz condemn her for "taking advantage of her employer," though, which Shiho has never told her boyfriend because she didn't want him to lose his temper and confront his unhinged stalker. While Shiho knows that Seiya ignores all the petty worries about reputation and integrity, Kudo (who once said that the social aspect of living can't be underestimated) might think that she is depending too much on Seiya, who had to shoulder all their expenses in the first months of their relationship because she didn't have anything but her papers and a few sets of clothes when she came here.

"I also teach the intermediate ballet classes at Kaioh-san's academy," she tells Kudo, taking care that she sounds nonchalant instead of defensive.

He knows about her ballet classes from Sonoko, Kudo dismissively says, informing her that Mori-san's best friend has often waylaid Seiya in front of his soundproof room to no avail. Unlike the other practice rooms in the academy, Seiya's studio and his windowless soundproof room are connected by a flight of stairs. From the look of things, Seiya—whose senses have been sharpened by years of experience and who can climb like a master burglar after doing the stunts for the Red Ninja—will continue to evade Suzuki-san in the future by fleeing through the door or the window of his studio whenever his survival instincts tell him that his soundproof room has been besieged by a scary fan.

"I didn't know that you can dance, though," Kudo remarks, casting furtive glances at her neck and her arms as if he is trying to imagine her at the barre. Ever since they met last night, Shiho believes to perceive a subtle change in his attitude towards her. Kudo seems taken aback by the very thought that she has kept Seiya's interest for so long. It must seem unbelievable to Kudo because he has never been attracted to her.

"I can't dance very well," she admits, leaning back into the seat of the sofa after drinking up her tea. "But I enjoyed the ballet classes at Infinity and knew all the basics, so Kaioh-san thought that we could start from there. I taught the beginners and have only begun to teach the intermediate classes this year."

"Can I watch one of your classes?" He sounds genuinely interested.

"Not if you value your life!" She is never going to let him see her in tights and a skimpy camisole.

"Has Kaioh-san ever shown signs of jealousy towards you?" Kudo changes the topic. "All the rumours about Tenoh and you must have affected her."

"Never. She has always treated me exceptionally well." Telling Kudo that Kaioh-san does appear to be apprehensive of her would seem like a betrayal. "There has been no sign of jealousy. She doesn't have a reason to feel insecure… You've seen her, Kudo."

"Has _he_ ever been jealous of Tenoh?" Kudo asks in a low voice—a strategy which isn't likely to succeed since Seiya can hear the maggots in an apple.

"Never," she chuckles. "He has never been jealous of her because—"

"—because modesty is not his forte!"

When they were shrunk, they often had these brain-sharing moments. It amuses Shiho that this is one of the few things which haven't changed.

x.

More than once Shiho has wondered why a woman like Michiru-sama would be jealous of her, and Seiya, who doesn't want his girlfriend to accuse him of being biased, has only blamed it on Haruka-san's conduct. Admittedly, Michiru-sama is the most gorgeous woman alive, whom Seiya has often caught staring at her own reflection in the mirror as if she is bewildered by her beauty, whose existence she has forgotten by the end of the day. But Shiho is infinitely more interesting in her complexity, and Seiya is sure that Michiru-sama knows it as well.

Despite her insecurity, Michiru-sama has always been a real lady and only betrayed her jealousy in the possessive way in which she clung to Haruka-san's arm whenever Shiho was present. After moving to Venice, Seiya has often told Haruka-san that she should ask Michiru-sama to come with her when she went out with Shiho during his rehearsals so that Michiru-sama didn't get the impression that her girlfriend was pursuing another woman. Amused by his worries, Haruka-san only laughed and remarked that she found a jealous Michiru cute and that he was only warning her because he had an axe to grind. Since Seiya loves to tease Shiho as well and Michiru-sama is only fascinating when she sheds her sterile angelic veil to reveal her flawed side, Seiya decided that it wasn't his job to criticize Haruka-san for her thoughtless behaviour.

"When we were in Paris… Did you know that M Jean Black was Tenoh's father?" Kudo Shinichi still sounds wounded, which is understandable. Seiya would have been hurt, too, if he were convinced that the woman he loved had run away without leaving a letter.

"Yes, I met him once when we were still at Infinity, during one of his vain attempts to talk her into returning to Paris with him."

"Why didn't she go back?" A rhetoric question, which actually meant: "Did she tell you about her reasons?"

"Because he didn't accept her relationship with Kaioh-san and because she loved racing. She lacked any incentive to go back while she had all the reasons to stay."

"To take revenge on the seven crows, for example?" Kudo's voice has become cutting although it is not louder than a whisper.

"Maybe…" Shiho's voice, tinged with trepidation, has become just as quiet, and Seiya can tell that she feels uncomfortable because she knows that he can hear them. To put her and himself at ease, Seiya sets the hairdryer on the shelf to "high", puts his phone away, covers his ears, and proceeds to sing all the songs of _The Phantom of the Opera_ in his head. Despite his genuine effort to ignore their conversation, however, his ears can still pick up any word they say.

"M Jean Black committed suicide after the downfall of the Organization. Did Tenoh tell you anything about it?"

"Suicide?" Shiho sounds shocked although she instantly regains her composure. "No, she didn't, but it makes sense to me. The sole purpose of his life was to bring down the Organization and avenge his wife's death, he told me in Paris. He must have lost the motivation to live after reaching his goal."

One of the _agents motards_ —not Alan, who no longer works with the French national motorcycle police—has informed Seiya about Jean Black's death and the investigation James Black secretly led. No sooner had he heard the news than Seiya offered Haruka-san his condolences although their friendship had suffered a setback after the Pandora's Box affair. In response, she only regarded him with a long cool look and said that her father had finally been able to leave this corrupt world behind—a luxury she couldn't afford because she still had a family to live for.

"Do you know what's really strange about the aftermath?" Kudo muses. "So many codename members have committed suicide—but none of the codename members has talked. The members without a code name know next to nothing about the Organization, and there is even one who claims that the seven crows are still alive and controlling the members from afar. The surviving codename members are all either extremely loyal or much more afraid of the Organization than of the law."

What was the Organization—Kudo wonders. A syndicate which extorted money in style while trying to find the elixir of life to revive the dead? "It sounds rather fantastic, doesn't it?"

"My task was only to create the so-called 'elixir of life', Kudo." This time, Shiho lies so convincingly that Seiya would fall for it if he were the detective. "I don't know anything about their hare-brained plans and didn't care as long as they paid me well."

"How much does _he_ know about the Organization?" Kudo asks in alarm. Shiho must have betrayed her anxiety by gazing in Seiya's direction or freeze like she always does whenever she is reminded of Seiya's parents because the mistrust in Kudo's voice is palpable.

"I've already told you that he knows everything I know! One can say he knows as much about the Organization as you…"

Since he can't help but overhear every single word, he might as well leave his self-imposed exile now, Seiya decides as he rearranges his locks and readjusts his frilly white shirt, which he has put on again because his cardigan is still drying on the heater. Shiho must believe that he has abandoned her during this interrogation while he only wanted to give Kudo sufficient time to get accustomed to the knowledge that she is taken.

It's a shame that things have turned out like this! Seiya has been wooing Kudo like an attentive lover, has shown himself from his best side and studiously ignored Kudo's provocations because he has promised Shiho to behave himself and because Shiho insisted that Kudo was not in the least in love with her. Kudo would most probably come with his girlfriend _and_ her best friend and maybe even her best friend's boyfriend—Shiho predicted—because Mori Ran, who could be very jealous, would never let Kudo visit a female friend alone and because Mori-san's socialite friend was curious and obnoxious enough to tail her. That's why Seiya had to buy six portions of tiramisu, she said. _I'm going to pluck every single hair off your body if you buy too little and embarrass me!_

"Was Tenoh Seiya's friend or rival? Why did she dislike him so much?" Kudo, who must have realized that Seiya can hear them, doesn't even make an effort to lower his voice anymore.

"She disliked him because he is a happy male version of her. If you're certain that you're the best thing which could have happened to this world, it's annoying to see another person who resembles you so much but is much happier than you."

Considering what his parents had done to her mother, Haruka-san should have hated him more than she did, Seiya concedes. Back then, he almost admired Haruka-san for her neutral behaviour towards Kakyuu, Yaten, and Taiki. Haruka-san once told Seiya that she despised him because he could have changed the world for the better but threw away the chance in order to pursue his selfish passions. _You sound just like my mother_ , Seiya had only quipped, whereupon she—insulted by the comparison—instantly assaulted him and they fought on the street until the police came.

Ironically, Seiya was mesmerized by Haruka-san when they first met during a Christmas concert at Infinity. While all the other boys were flocking to the stage, where Kaioh Michiru was still standing, Seiya was the only boy who approached the blonde pianist behind the curtain, who was surrounded by three admiring girls in Infinity's green and brown school uniforms. _Your nickname suits you_ , Seiya had said when he shook "his" warm, slender hand, alluding to the wind, which could range from a warm gentle breeze to a ferocious storm. Startled by the intensity of the conflicting emotions he could see in Tenoh Haruka's eyes, Seiya added with his most dazzling smile,  _I have the feeling we two have a lot in common._

Seiya knew that he didn't have a way with words—actually he usually shot himself in the foot whenever he was being emotional, which was why he usually kept his mouth shut in the hope that his wit would return after the feelings had died down. But his awkward attempt to befriend the "boy", whom he believed to be a soul mate, couldn't be the cause of the violent hatred in "the other boy's" eyes. Tenoh Haruka's fine nose twitched as if it had detected an extremely offensive, foul odour—and "he" seemed to fight an incredible urge to hurt and to destroy before "he" turned away and walked in the direction of the dressing rooms.

 _Kinmokusei, isn't it?_ Tenoh-san threw Seiya an icy look over "his" shoulder. His voice, androgynous and pleasantly husky, was so oddly attractive that Seiya began to comprehend why some people claim that sexuality was fluid. _Kinmokusei and orange blossoms! I could never forget such a warm, nostalgic fragrance…_ "His" eyes lit up with a knowing, dangerous glint. _Where did you buy it—or is it actually a custom-made perfume?_

Sometimes Seiya wondered what would have been if Haruka-san hadn't been gay or if Seiya hadn't been so straight that her lack of femininity made a romance between them impossible. He was intrigued by her before he fell in love with Odango, who resembled Kakyuu so much that it hurt. If she had been more feminine and if he had failed his parents' cockroach test, Haruka-san might have treated him like she treated Taiki or Yaten—and they would have become the best of friends with time or even slipped into a brief, doomed teenage relationship until they clubbed each other to death over some petty quarrel.

x.

The cockroach invasion was nightmarish, almost traumatizing. Unexpectedly, the repulsive, stinking pest crawled out of the bathroom and invaded the kitchen and was suddenly everywhere! Armies of cockroaches scuttled across the corridors, climbed on the walls, fluttered across the halls… Kakyuu, who was hiding under a blanket, had trembled and prayed and wept while Yaten—who was only five at that time—had unleashed a torrent of obscenities, fought off the cockroaches on the bed where Kakyuu and he sat, and screamed for the bodyguards, who didn't appear.

Taiki and Seiya discovered that the cockroaches were lining the walls of the cellar like a living shell, which was peculiar since the cellar was perfectly clean a few day ago. When Taiki ran to their parents and asked them for help, they only shrugged and argued that Taiki should learn to deal with the pest if it bothered him.

Taiki, who was the brain of the group, guessed that a flame thrower would solve the problem but was afraid of the consequences. Seiya, meanwhile, had ruthlessly killed all the cockroaches that crossed his path, asked Taiki to accompany Kakyuu (who was chanting to herself that even cockroaches wanted to live and therefore deserved mercy) into the garden, and talked Yaten into helping him steal a flame thrower and a portable fire extinguisher from the tool shed for the cellar. While his siblings weren't around, Seiya switched off the light and killed the rest of the cockroaches in the house. After he had got rid of all the cockroaches he found with all the means he had, Seiya used food as bait and waited in the dark for the surviving rest of the cockroach army, which he eliminated as well. When the threat was finally over and Seiya took a well-deserved rest while his more tender-hearted siblings cleaned the house, he could see a victorious smile stretch over his mothers' face. She patted his head, nudged his father, and glowed with the look she always wore whenever she had won a bet. _I told you so_ , the look said.

Ever since that day, Seiya was allowed more freedom than the rest. Even after Kakyuu returned from her private all-girls school and they got a rigid, grueling schedule, which caused Seiya to skip lessons regularly, his parents were surprisingly indulgent. On the one hand he received more work than his two brothers as punishment for skipping class, on the other hand they let him get away with murder, so to speak. And naive as Seiya was, he had absolutely no inkling of what was going on until he was fifteen.

 _People fall in love with you, Seiya—for no reason at all. And the ability to kindle love in others—_ when he closes his eyes, Seiya can still feel his mother's long, gentle fingers in his hair— _is an immensely powerful weapon._

_With a few minor exceptions, children—raised with love and constant challenges like you four—are always nice and adorable. But as they grow up and adapt to this corrupt, cruel world, the child in them dies, and they gradually lose all goodness in them. Humankind is still too young and weak. Prometheus made a grave mistake when he brought humankind fire—because independence is only a blessing when you're intelligent and mature enough to use it._

_After so many centuries, humans are still miserable. There is so much pain and injustice in this world that people still depend on the illusion of security their community, culture, and religion give them. But all these things are useless when the real problem lies in the humans themselves._

_Can you remember the legend of Pandora's Box? The Gods—enraged by Prometheus' betrayal and fearful of the growing human population—punished Prometheus and sent Prometheus' brother Epimetheus Pandora: the elegant, beautiful, and talented woman the Gods had created from earth. Pandora was then given the impossible task of guarding a jar she wasn't allowed to open. Succumbing to her curiosity, Pandora opened the jar and released Death and all the other evils of humanity over humankind._

_Hope, the last gift, which lay at the bottom of "Pandora's Box", was kept in the jar when Pandora—horrified by the consequences of her action—closed the lid. In another version of the story, Pandora succumbed to Hope's alluring, sweet voice, and eventually set it free so that it could fly out into the world, where it stayed forever. In all versions of the story, Hope was the only blessing of the Gods, which saved humankind from extinction—although some skeptics argue that beautiful, persuasive, glittering, sincere, wild Hope was the last thing which escaped from the jar of evils because it's the greatest evil of all._

_But without hope, how could we go on living when darkness approaches? Many birds leave the country when the season changes. Crows, on the other hand, are strong, smart, loyal birds that learn fast, mate for life, survive in winter, and use all the tools they can find to achieve what they want._

_We're going to create the Silver Bullet—the only effective weapon against the Werewolf in Man! Playing both God and the Devil, we're going to raise the Dead and reverse the Stream of Time because all the evils of humanity would dissolve and this world would be a much better place if most people were children!_

_Do you know why we've given you more freedom than your siblings? Kakyuu is too kind, Yaten is too self-contained, and Taiki is too indecisive. But as impulsive as you are, you're the only one who can do whatever the situation requires because you can keep your cool under stress and don't let yourself be hampered by morals, feelings, or intellect. Everyone loves you and follows you voluntarily while you never go along with the crowd and remain independent._

_Fireball, Night Sky, the Great Radiance of the Atmosphere, and the Light of Hope on the Starry, Starry Night… You four are my beautiful shooting stars in the night, who will make my wish come true._ She chuckled, and Seiya knew that she must be drunk although her voice was still low and clear. _Since you're the only one who has the qualities of a leader, Seiya, I pin all my hopes on you._

x.

 


	33. Part Four: In the beginning...

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**In the beginning…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

In the beginning, Shinichi believed that Ai only lied during the interrogation at La Fenice because she couldn't talk freely in Carrara's presence. But now he is positive that she is lying to him, too. It shouldn't surprise him, as her disappearance after the Pandora's Box operation is sufficient proof that she has never been completely truthful with him in the first place. And—as irrational as it is—it does console him that she must be lying to Seiya as well.

Ai has unquestionably refined her acting skills in the last years: she looked and sounded perfectly neutral when Shinichi voiced his suspicion that Tenoh had stayed in Japan in order to take revenge on the seven crows for murdering her mother. A second afterwards, when he pretended to focus on his tea, however, Shinichi could see in his peripheral vision that Ai was anxious—even horrified—by his question and that she has once again darted a calculating glance in the direction of the bathroom.

Beyond doubt, she is petrified of Seiya overhearing their conversation whenever Shinichi mentions the seven crows—which doesn't make any sense to Shinichi if she has really told Seiya all about Gin and the Organization. The intensity of her fear also throws him, especially since Seiya behaves like a nauseatingly agreeable boyfriend or—if their relationship is only a charade—a rather pleasant flatmate. Considering his cavalier attitude to social norms, it's unlikely that Seiya will condemn Ai for her past role as a leading scientist of the Organization. Therefore, whatever she is hiding from her singer must be a dark secret related to Tenoh and the seven crows. On the one hand, Shinichi can wait until they are alone to ask her what this affair is about. On the other hand, her acting skills have become a pain to deal with—and Shinichi can make use of her weak spot by interrogating her now.

When he pulls out the watercolour card with Tenoh Akira's name, however, she looks so terrified that he—unable to press ahead with his plan—wordlessly stuffs it back into his jeans pocket. She thanks him with a bright, warm smile, which staggers Shinichi because he seldom if ever saw it on her face while the Organization existed—not even during her time with the Detective Boys or on the few occasions when she met Higo, whom she ardently admired, in person.

"Since Kaioh's academy already existed before you came here, Tenoh and Kaioh must have moved to Venice before the Organization went down. So why did they return to Tokyo and ran into you in Ichinohashi Park before we went to Paris? Was Tenoh working for her father?"

Ai must have deduced by now that Shinichi knows about Tenoh's connection to M Jean Black. But she doesn't betray any emotions and, distracted by Seiya, who has just stepped out of the bathroom, doesn't even answer immediately. Darting Shinichi and Ai curious glances, Seiya winks and smiles at Ai before disappearing in the bedroom. The singer is holding a mobile phone although his hands were empty when he entered the bathroom to dry his hair, Shinichi observes. And since Shinichi is positive that Seiya didn't keep a phone in the non-bulging pockets of his cardigan either, Shinichi has to conclude that Seiya must have forgotten his phone in the bathroom when he opened the door for Shinichi…

The probability that they're only playing a charade is so tiny that it might as well not exist, Shinichi concedes, mulling over the possibility that he will have to jail Ai's live-in boyfriend in the near future. If Seiya has really murdered Tenoh—which Shinichi hopes not—Shinichi can't possibly let him escape the law just because Ai is in love with him. Quite the contrary, Shinichi should look forward to arresting Seiya in order to save Ai from this potentially dangerous and destructive relationship. Ai has always had a terrible taste in men, as evidenced by her past relationship with the "second crow"—and Shinichi suspects that Seiya's ability to switch within the blink of an eye actually fascinates her instead of alarming her as it should.

"Tenoh-san didn't work for anyone," Ai belatedly, absently replies after returning Seiya's smile. "She even stopped addressing M Black as her father after he told her that he was never going to accept her relationship with Kaioh-san. She would never have worked for _him_ even if she had wanted to work for anyone."

"What about MI6 or MI5? She has been seen with MI6 agents, and she did stay in London for a year when she was fourteen."

"Very unlikely. She was always her own boss—no one could have controlled her. Most likely, those people were only her acquaintances. She didn't have many real friends but socialized with almost everyone."

"She was very gregarious?"

"Gregarious" is not the right word—Ai claims—as Tenoh was curious and charming and loved to surround herself with people but could also "avoid others like the plague for weeks if she was in her lone wolf mode." A trace of a smile flickers across Ai's face. "In that aspect, she is very much like a certain someone."

"Haruka-san didn't take orders from anyone," Seiya, who has returned to the living room in the meantime, adds. "She liked to give orders, though, and went nuts when you opposed to her." He walks into the kitchen to do the dishes with the air of a housewife who is accustomed to the task, whereupon Ai leaps to her feet and asks Shinichi to wait for her for a minute.

"I can do it for you today," she proposes as she joins Seiya at the sink. "He is _my_ detective, after all," she adds in a soft voice tinged with mischief.

"It's only a few plates and glasses," Seiya smirks. "You can do it another time—when Odango visits us and we have much more dishes to wash."

"As you can see, he loves to bully me!" Ai remarks, returning to the table. "I really believed I could intimidate him into submission at first. But now I have to fight hard to prevent him from winning." She doesn't return to the sofa but stays at Shinichi's armchair, leaning against the high coffee table to gaze down at him with her usual curious half-smile. Her lavender-grey cashmere dress, which—quite enticingly—flows down her chest and her thighs, looks so soft and fluffy that Shinichi has to suppress the urge to touch her. Perhaps he has been single for too long, he thinks, disturbed by the wish. Men of his age seldom stay single for almost four years without enjoying occasional visits of dubious female acquaintances who, to put it politely, easily share their favours. This must be a biological problem since he has never seen Ai as a potential lover before.

"Why was Tenoh in Tokyo when she met you in Ichinohashi Park?" Shinichi rephrases his question. "Was she interested in the files in Pandora's Box?" It annoys him that he can't guess what the subtext of Seiya and Ai's banter was about, and he gets increasingly irritated by her strange eagerness to talk about their relationship, which he still hopes to be fake but which looks devastatingly real.

She sighs.

"It's impossible to hide anything from you, isn't it? Tenoh-san did want the files—for the same reasons why you wanted them, of course: to save the scapegoats of the Organization. But after learning that her father had already asked you to backup the files for him, she decided to help _me_ instead—in case anything went wrong." She shrugs, giving him a disarming smile, which infuriates him for no clear reason. "Since having an ally like her couldn't hurt, I agreed."

"You should have told me about her!" Shinichi snaps. "We were… partners—or so I thought."

Noticing that he sounds like a jealous ex-husband who is now making a scene at her new boyfriend's place because she has lied to him and betrayed him—a ridiculous comparison, now that he is thinking about it—Shinichi quickly continues with the next question before she can react. "Does Kaioh know about Pandora's Box? Did Tenoh and she work together?"

"Of course she knows about it. Tenoh-san tells her almost everything." Although Ai looks bewildered, almost upset by Shinichi's outburst, she doesn't try to linger on the topic. Tearing her gaze from her boyfriend or fake-boyfriend, who is dutifully doing the dishes and ignoring their talk, she adds: "But Kaioh-san wasn't involved in any way. She was on tour at that time. Actually, she'd have liked to stay in Tokyo to help me out, but Tenoh-san threatened to play Stockhausen for a whole month if Kaioh-san didn't perform at Carnegie Hall."

"She'd have turned down Carnegie Hall?" Shinichi gives Ai a skeptical look. Although the musical world doesn't interest him in the least, even he knows what Carnegie Hall means to a musician.

"She is extremely generous, Kudo—embarrassingly so… Just like Tenoh-san." A deep blush spreads on her cheeks and her lips, whose graceful curves and appealing shape have become most distracting. "She—I mean Tenoh-san—never knew when to stop."

"What do you mean?" Intrigued by the resentment in her voice and the sorrow in her eyes, Shinichi automatically bends forward until he notices that she has begun to back away. "Did Tenoh overdo it from time to time?"

"Not from time to time—but almost always. That's why Seiya and she often clashed. She simply couldn't leave us alone!"

Like his two brothers, Seiya is supposed to stay single forever or at least for the next ten to fifteen years—Ai explains—because his "evil but supportive" agent Igarashi Shizuka-san firmly believes that a steady girlfriend would tarnish his image of the unattainable lover born under a wandering star. To appease Igarashi-san, whose late father was Three Lights' mentor when they started their idol careers, Seiya and Ai agreed to keep this relationship secret until Two Lights' comeback this Christmas so that the news wouldn't affect Yaten and Taiki. But Tenoh—self-righteous as she was—made their relationship public by sending the editors of the most famous Japanese magazines a mail, claiming that she only did it because she believed that "dealing with the publicity would help."

"Well, Tenoh was right," Shinichi points out. "You said yourself that your reputation is ruined because people believe that you're his secretary!"

"She didn't want to 'help' us become an official couple, Kudo!" Ai's gaze darkens. "Tenoh-san said that this was blind love and that it's a waste of time because it's not going anywhere." Her voice is now as low as a whisper, and—falling into the old habit she has cultivated during her time as Haibara Ai—she leans in so that only he can hear her. "Since Tenoh-san was convinced that this would only end in tears, she planned to break us up as soon as possible so that we both could move on and find other people to marry."

Which is actually a most sensible idea—Shinichi thinks—since no relationship with a fixed expiration date should be taken seriously. But naturally, he refrains from telling Ai his honest opinion. Despite suffering from bouts of ill-advised bluntness, Shinichi has learned not to unleash his unfiltered thoughts on his friends when he knows that his comments will only hurt them. Tenoh Haruka, on the other hand, apparently tried to force her opinion on others on a regular basis. At least Shinichi slowly begins to comprehend Seiya's and Ai's anger at Tenoh Haruka's conduct although he still can't believe that this is the only reason why they stubbornly refuse to mourn her.

In any case, there is a more urgent problem for him to deal with than the mystery surrounding Tenoh Haruka's death.

"What are you going to do now? If you stay here, you'll be dissected by the gutter press. Ran and I are staying in Venice for another week. You can fly back to Tokyo with us if you want—that is, if you can quit your job until then." Knowing that she can't earn much with her part-time jobs and may be too broke to buy a ticket, Shinichi casually adds: "I'm going to buy the ticket for you. If you want to hide from the reporters, you can stay in the Danieli in our suite until Monday since we're staying at Sonoko's place. Afterwards, I can find you a new room, where you can hide from the reporters until the flight." Since Ai only stares at him in stunned silence, he gives a mirthless chuckle. "Don't worry, _he_ —" he indicates Seiya with a dismissive movement of his wrist, "—can still visit you whenever he wants, and you can pay me back later, after you've found a good job in Tokyo."

Baffled by Shinichi's suggestions, Ai darts Seiya, who has abruptly stopped doing the dishes, a wondering glance before she turns her level gaze on Shinichi.

"I'll continue doing the paperwork for the ballet department until the end of this semester—until Meioh-san returns. Afterwards, I'm going to take over the advanced ballet classes for Kaioh-san, who'd like to quit teaching to take up the violin again." She blinks into space as if she is still trying to guess what Shinichi meant to say with his proposal to fly back to Tokyo with him and Ran. "Thank you for your offer… It's extremely generous and I really appreciate it…" Her gaze softens. "But I can't return to Tokyo next week." Of course she is going to introduce Seiya to the Professor and the Detective Boys some day, she assures him. Actually, she has already planned a trip for this Christmas. "Seiya and I were going to visit Tokyo first before flying to New York to celebrate Taiki-san's and Yaten-san's comeback with them… But now that Tenoh-san has created this scandal for us, I'd prefer the Professor to come to New York if things get too bad. I'm going to ask him in a few days, after I've survived the first interviews and burned the hate mails of Seiya's fanatic fans."

With a start, Shinichi realizes that Ai and Seiya have never intended to break up this arrangement when Meioh Setsuna resumes her job. Following Ai's worried gaze, which has returned to the kitchen, Shinichi notices that, although he has resumed doing the dishes, the singer looks gloomy and hurt.

"I misunderstood when you said you're going to stay in Venice for four years," Shinichi half-heartedly tries to salvage the situation, feeling so exhausted by the latest development that he'd rather close his eyes and take a nap. "I thought you were going to return to Tokyo…" He trails off when reality hits him with unexpected force.

"For a visit," she gently says. Closing the distance between them, she lightly places her hand on his shoulder and—before drawing away—gives his arm a friendly squeeze as if she has noticed his shock at the realization that she is not going to return. "Maybe we _will_ live in Tokyo again in a few years—if the situation changes and Seiya begins to spend more time in Japan than in Europe. But right now it's impossible."

"We can go back to Japan whenever you want," Seiya, who has remained silent during the whole conversation, interjects. "I can find a job anywhere, and we still have the apartment in Azabu Juuban."

"I'd rather stay here and teach the advanced ballet classes," Ai promptly replies although Shinichi believes to see a hint of regret in her gaze. "Maybe in a few years," she thoughtfully adds, "after the wedding!"

"You're going to marry?" Shinichi vehemently grabs her wrist just when she leaves him to walk over to the sofa, causing her to stumble, whereupon she whirls around to blink at him in astonishment. He doesn't let go so that they stay locked in the same position for what feels like years—until Seiya Kou's voice wakes them up from the trance and reclaims her attention.

It's just a running joke of hers, which Shinichi shouldn't take seriously, Seiya dryly remarks while Ai silently frees herself from Shinichi's grab. In reality, she is so terrified of marriage that she will always run away whenever he mentions it. It has happened so often by now that he has completely lost his interest in marriage as well. They're never going to marry, period! To both of them, it's only a redundant piece of paper and another unnecessary bureaucratic procedure.

Another pretty excuse of a commitment-phobic man who has never tried to propose in all seriousness, Shinichi observes. Nevertheless, he feels so incredibly relieved to hear Seiya's words after her agonizing silence that he begins to doubt his sanity. Watching Ai, who has just poured him and herself tea, which she is now sipping in brooding silence, Shinichi deduces with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that she would immediately marry her singer if he proposed. And for the first time Shinichi can feel acutely that there is something missing in her faraway gaze when she finally meets his eyes. Miyano Shiho is no longer looking at him with the same undivided attention and intense interest he once took for granted in Haibara Ai.

x.

"You said Seiya's agent is trying to maintain his image as an unattainable lover. Does it mean that his reputation of womanizing has completely been made up by Igarashi-san?" A quick glance into the kitchen shows Shinichi that Seiya, exasperated by the question, has just rolled his eyes. Obviously, the singer, who is scrubbing the sink, can still hear everything they say despite the sound of the running water.

Igarashi-san claims that it was Seiya's own doing although she did promote his bad boy image—but Seiya, who boldly stands by all his other irritating lifestyle habits like barhopping and roaming cities in disguise, adamantly denies that he has ever touched any of the women who spread rumours about his tumultuous love life—Ai informs Shinichi with a wry smile. "I prefer to trust his version of the story since we've been living together for years and he hasn't cheated on me yet," she adds, flashing her boyfriend a teasing smirk. "But I'm willing to change my opinion if someone can prove to me that he is lying."

For an actor like Seiya Kou, who regularly leaves the city for days or weeks, cheating on his girlfriend without her knowledge should be plain sailing, Shinichi thinks. Ai may be more observant and intelligent than the average woman, but she also seems so unreasonably infatuated with her present life partner that she readily believes anything he says.

"Besides, the love of his life is now happily married and the other woman he admires prefers women to men—which is why he'll be stuck with me for life," she wickedly adds, whereupon Seiya, who has just finished drying the dishes, protests that she shouldn't reveal all the details of his private life to her friend without asking him for permission.

"Your flirt with Kaioh wasn't only a prank to aggravate Tenoh?" Shinichi asks Seiya, who has just joined them at the table and pinched Ai's cheek in revenge for her remark—a gesture Shinichi hasn't expected from him. Observing that Ai doesn't even flinch, Shinichi deduces in surprise that she is accustomed to the treatment.

"Michiru-sama did use me to make Haruka-san jealous," Seiya admits, giving Shinichi a resigned smile, "but I wasn't aware of her plan."

"See, that's what I meant," Ai tucks an unruly lock of Seiya's hair back into place, leaving her hand in his hair for a moment before she draws away. "He also gushed about her music and her paintings and her swimming skills during all our walks along Tenoh-san's beach. Maybe he'd have pursued her despite her preferences if it hadn't been for Tenoh-san, who would have murdered him."

"I wasn't serious about Michiru-sama at all," Seiya vehemently denies. "I was only interested in Odango… and that was before I met you!"

"Does it mean that you'd have preferred me to her?" Ai takes his arm and subtly tilts her head to give him a coy look.

"No," the singer laconically admits. "I only liked the nice girls back then—you'd have been way too sarcastic for my taste."

"Why did you flirt with Kaioh if you weren't romantically interested in her?" Shinichi coolly asks.

Seiya casts a nervous glance at Ai, who is looking expectantly at him.

"She was interesting," he says cryptically, after a thoughtful pause. "I still think she is one of the most impressive women I've ever met—but I've never been in love with her… not in the conventional sense of the word."

Without letting go of her singer's arm, Ai flashes Shinichi a content smile.

"You see now why I've endured living with him for years? He is more or less honest and only omits all the details he doesn't want me to know."

They surely have a curious relationship, which resembles a close friendship more than a love affair, considering the ease with which they talk about the women Seiya used to love. But beneath the playful banter, Shinichi can sense serious issues simmering. If they are really a couple, Ai can't be very happy about the remarkably beautiful women in Seiya's circle of friends—much less about "Odango" (who must be Chiba's wife since she wore her hair in high side buns, as Shinichi could see on the photo Ran saved for him). Adding the secrets Ai is keeping from Seiya, Seiya's fame, and Seiya's job, which doesn't leave much time for a serious relationship, into the mix, this is a perfect recipe for disaster in the long run.

x.

Lovers have the annoying tendency to touch whenever they can—and if Seiya and Ai are only playing a charade, they are playing it so well that even Shinichi can't find a flaw in their act. Sitting across the pair, who are glued to each other and holding hands like thirteen-year-olds on their first date, Shinichi tries hard to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach to focus on work.

"Yamada Katsutoshi—have you heard about him?"

Ai shakes her head whereas Seiya nods.

"Second to Haruka-san's first place in all of their races," he tells Shinichi and Ai. "His hooligan friends and fans used to start a fight with Haruka-san after every race, so Odango told me."

"Did Tenoh call Chiba's wife 'koneko-chan'?" Shinichi asks.

"Yes, like any other woman she liked," Ai smiles.

"Any pretty, cute woman she liked," Seiya corrects her.

"Did she call you 'koneko-chan', too?" Shinichi asks Ai.

Tenoh-san did, Ai admits. Usually, she hated these demeaning nicknames, but from Tenoh-san's mouth, "koneko-chan" sounded respectful and natural.

"So what happened when Yamada's fans attacked Tenoh-san?" Ai asks Seiya. Obviously, she is not the "koneko-chan" Maeda saw.

"Of course Haruka-san helped all of them get a long, restful stay in hospital—and Yamada-san ran out of aggressive fans after a few months. Haruka-san said Yamada-san was all right, though. He never attacked her and always tried to stop his friends from harassing her whenever he could."

"He disappeared just when Tenoh quit racing, and was declared missing soon afterwards. Rumour has it that she has murdered him," Shinichi says, watching Ai and Seiya carefully. Ai looks taken aback by the news but Seiya stays perfectly nonchalant, which can be attributed to his acting skills but can also mean that he honestly doesn't care.

"Why should she have killed him?" Seiya raises his brow. "He was totally insignificant in her eyes. Perhaps his friends accidentally killed him when they tried to trap her so that they had to dispose of his corpse or hide it somewhere."

"At Infinity, for instance," Shinichi suggests.

"Maybe," Seiya says without showing much interest. "Why are you so interested in Yamada-san out of a sudden?" His eyes light up with a mischievous glint. "Have you put his corpse on your list of suspects?"

There it is—the sudden switch between "Seiya Kou, the helpful witness" and "Seiya Kou, the pain in the neck"—just when one would least expect it!

"Not yet. But you're still on the top of my list until I can strike you out," Shinichi coolly declares, ignoring Ai's disbelieving gaze. "You'd better cooperate since you're dealing with a real problem."

"That's flattering to know," Seiya looks thoroughly amused. "But perhaps you're the one with a serious problem?" Giving Ai's hand a reassuring squeeze, he calmly adds: "Michiru-sama sent me a message when I was in the bathroom: The police has just informed her that the case is closed. Since you're Shiho's friend, you can interrogate Shiho and me as much as you want. But if I don't want to, I don't have to tell you anything."

No sooner did Seiya finish his sentence than one of Shinichi's mobile phones vibrates. Just as Shinichi feared, Commissario Carrara has sent him a message: "Since I had to close the case, let's meet at five thirty in front of Signora Kaioh's place if you still want to have a look at Signora Tenoh's belongings. PS: The fingerprints on the glass and the fingerprints on the doorknob do match. Carrara."

x.

"Since the case is closed, we can talk about you instead. So, how do you manage to live with the same man for four years without getting bored?" Shinichi innocently asks Ai after recovering from the latest blow. "After all your speeches on the boredom and futility of marriage and long-time commitment, I was surprised to read that you've stayed with Gin for… how long? You were eighteen when it ended." Although the case is closed, the game is afoot. It will be easier to catch the culprit and the witnesses supporting them off-guard when they all deem themselves out of danger.

Ai doesn't respond but only studies Shinichi in silence, visibly confused by his behaviour, which she can't comprehend.

"Three years," Seiya unexpectedly answers the question for her. "They got together when she was fifteen, so she told me." Smiling at Ai, who is now looking daggers at him, he adds: "Shiho is not as harmless as she looks. Actually, she pursued him for years—since she was four or five—until he finally gave in. Then he fell hard for her while she got bored out of her mind. Gin wanted to marry her when she was eighteen—bought a diamond ring and proposed to her in a five-star hotel—but she turned down his proposal with the comment that she'd rather die than sign the papers because he was absolutely no husband material."

Shinichi can tell that Seiya is getting back at Ai for spilling the beans about the women he likes. And if they both voluntarily give away each other's secrets to satisfy their desire for revenge, Shinichi, whose curiosity is a bottomless pit, will be the last person to prevent them from doing so.

"Living with Gin meant being his therapist, his mother, his colleague, his doctor, his cook, his maid, and his lover for twenty-four hours a day—and that for seven days a week," Ai coldly says, surprising Shinichi with her unexpected candour. "When he was in a good mood, we'd go out and he'd shower me with fancy purses and flowers. When he was in a bad mood, he'd handcuff me to the heater, put out his cigarettes on me, and leave me there for the whole day."

"He… tortured you?" Shinichi stammers, feeling the blood draining from his face before the images she has conjured up materialize before his eyes and a rush of blind fury overwhelms him. Even though he didn't expect the second crow to be a gentle boyfriend, Shinichi would never have expected Gin to torture her.

She looks genuinely surprised by his choice of word.

"No, he didn't—or at least not intentionally. He only tried to punish me, I think. Gin had a terrible childhood, and I knew he couldn't express his anger in a nicer way—but I couldn't muster the patience and self-denial to put up with his antics in the hope that he would change in a few decades." Giving Shinichi the relaxed smile of a woman who has long forgiven her abusive ex-boyfriend, she chuckles and leans against her singer, who protectively wraps his arm around her shoulder. "Seiya actually does the same things—sans the cigarettes," she asserts with an impassive face while Seiya winces at the comparison. "But since he only uses napkins and handkerchiefs to tie me to picturesque bridges and I can free myself without a key, it's much easier to stay with him."

"On a more serious note, it's hard for us to bore each other silly if we can only see each other in the evenings and during meals," Seiya remarks. "You'll have to find yourself another girlfriend because I'm definitely not going to give up mine!"

The sentence has been uttered in a perfectly friendly tone—laced with charm and humour and completely devoid of aggression—and Ai, blushing with embarrassment, only ruffles Seiya's hair and shakes her head, claiming that Shinichi should be flattered by the warning because her boyfriend is usually never jealous. Even so, Shinichi knows that he can take Seiya Kou's declaration at face value this time. Despite rejecting the idea of marriage, the singer is serious about her and determined to keep her by his side. But while the realization that Ai's boyfriend isn't only playing with her feelings should appease Shinichi and endear the singer to him, Shinichi discovers with a sense of dread that he can't bear to lose her like that—as if she had become a part of him during her absence and accepting her relationship with another man wasn't even an option.

"It's true that I'm not a very jealous person," Seiya voice, eerily beautiful in its clarity, startles Shinichi out of his contemplations. "But since she told me that she's in love with you and I'd prefer not to share her, I'm going to keep an eye on you two because it's better to be safe than sorry."

"You were once in love with me?" Shinichi stares at Ai—stunned by the revelation, which Seiya has brutally dumped on him in the same matter-of-fact way in which he has just poured tea into Shinichi's cup again without asking Shinichi whether he wants any.

"Oh, I still am—and that despite having a very attentive boyfriend." Ai looks suitably embarrassed although her posture stays remarkably calm and poised. "Are you… flattered by the thought?" She cocks her head and narrows her eyes, peering through her long, barely curved eyelashes to study Shinichi with keen scientific interest, which doesn't match her tone and her words.

"Heaven forbid, no!" Shinichi exclaims, enraged by the realization that Seiya and she are only playing a joke on him.

Ai laughs—a deep, warm sound with a silvery edge, which fills him with a tingling sensation—but doesn't show any interest in continuing the discussion.

After a comfortable silence, in which they only behold the golden patterns the sunlight from the glass roof has drawn on the corridor—surreal pictures that gradually change as the raindrops roll away—Seiya slightly bends towards Ai to refill her cup. Keeping her boyfriend's head still with one hands, which she has left entangled in his hair, Ai spontaneously plants a slow, passionate kiss on his chin. Although she didn't kiss him on the lips, Shinichi is startled by the expression on her face when she opens her eyes. Even if this were only a charade, there is no doubt as to whom she really loves.

"Sorry for misbehaving," she winks at Shinichi. "But tonight I'll have to watch him feel up 'Christine' again. It must be delicious torture for a masochist! Unfortunately, I don't have the mental make-up for this…"

"Ah, just drop it, will you?" Seiya groans. "You know I'd never cheat on you!" Turning to Shinichi, he openly complains as if they were in couples therapy and Shinichi were their psychologist: "I turn down any movie or play with a love scene and even fake the most harmless stage kisses in a musical because of her—but she can't understand that there is absolutely no reason to worry."

"I've forgotten about the stage kisses," Shinichi admits. "Dealing with a partner's love scenes must be hard. My mother had to quit acting because my father couldn't handle it."

Seiya visibly blanches at the prospect of having to quit acting, confirming Shinichi's suspicion that to Seiya, acting is a vocation, not a job.

"You can go ahead with all those 'harmless' stage kisses if you want," Ai declares in a sharp voice. "It doesn't matter since you've fondled her belly and her breasts in her skimpy nightdress during almost every single rehearsal I've been forced to watch… I've already grown accustomed to it by now although it's not pleasant! I should show you how it feels by asking you to watch me make out with another man every day."

"You should have told me this after the very first rehearsal or after we read the screenplay!" Seiya retorts. "I'd never have accepted the role if I'd known that it'd bother you so much!"

"But then you wouldn't have found any main role for this season, would you?" Her melancholic voice drifts away, and Shinichi can practically see Seiya's irritation evaporate.

"That's nonsense!" He tenderly, ruefully, rubs her fingers and her wrist. "In the worst case scenario, I can simply make do without a main role."

"You're really impatient today!" She coolly withdraws her hand although a hint of a smile has stolen into her eyes. "You're already losing yourself in the Phantom."

"I know." He apologetically strokes her knee. "The next time it happens, just kick me!"

Half amused and half distressed by the scene, Shinichi wonders whether they're always oscillating between kissing and fighting. Life is full of seemingly random coincidences and fateful decisions, which will shape one's future and drastically change the course of one's life, he absently muses. If only he had returned to the ship in time, Seiya and Ai would never have met. Seiya would have gone to New York, Tenoh might still be alive. And if there was a grain of truth in Ai's joke that she was in love with Shinichi, the past three years and eleven months, which they would have spent together in Tokyo, could have brought drastic changes to their relationship… And for an instant, Shinichi has a vision of how life would be if Ai were with him instead: Shinichi would never get distracted by other women; Ai would never have to lie to him because he would guess anything she tries to hide within days or weeks; they would love—or at least appreciate—each other's jobs; and they would solve cases together instead of spending the whole day apart from each other just to bicker about petty jealousies during tea.

He would also simply marry her instead of ruining her reputation, Shinichi thinks, indulging in the fantasy of Ai dressed in white or cream-coloured satin although he has to admit that it's much harder for him to picture her in white than in red. Like most adventurous women, Ai is fatally attracted to the wild bad boy—and not even her personal experiences with Gin could prevent her from flinging herself into the arms of a just as unmanageable life partner as the one from whom she has barely escaped.

"What about a glass of orange juice or a cup of hot chocolate on the roof terrace?" Seiya, who has just walked to a nearby window and peered through the Venetian blinds, suggests. "It has stopped raining," he smiles at Ai, who has followed him to the window and taken his elbow again, "and our stalker seems to have given up for the time being."

x.

 


	34. Part Four: The same scene...

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**The same scene…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

The same scene often looks dramatically different from another point of view—and Seiya wonders how their tea session went in Kudo's eyes because in Seiya's eyes, nothing can excuse Kudo's rude, even callous behaviour…

x.

When Seiya left the bathroom in high spirits—Michiru-sama's message that the case had been closed had taken an enormous weight (worth of Odango's entrée, main course, and dessert during an all-you-can-eat buffet!) off his mind—Shiho was glowing with pleasure, wearing an expression Seiya only got to see when she had been in the throes of ecstasy. Although he felt a pang of jealousy just then, Seiya let it slide since, well, he would be wearing the same smile if he were having tea with Odango after such a long time…

If it made Shiho happy to speak to her detective in private, why should she deny herself the joy? As long as there were clear boundaries and Shiho knew where to draw the line between lover and friend, Seiya didn't feel seriously threatened.

Nadia Gorowitz was no longer watching their bedroom, as Seiya could see through the mahogany Venetian blinds and the transparent curtains, and he pulled up the blinds to let the afternoon sun in. After the rain, the wet balustrade of their balcony glistened in the pale, warm light. Carrying the clothes rack from the bedroom to the balcony because he could already hear Shiho's request in his head, Seiya noticed that the wild roses at the door were in need of pruning. Since he didn't have time, he only shoved the two porcelain flower pots into a sunnier spot near the balustrade before he left the bedroom for the living room.

Since he entered the living room just when Shiho compared him to Haruka-san, Seiya thought it was a good idea to join the talk in a natural way—with a comment about Haruka-san's inability to follow orders despite her propensity for giving them. Instead of drawing Seiya into their conversation, however, Kudo only shot him a baleful look. "Get lost!" the look said—and Seiya, who could remember vividly how he felt when Haruka-san gleefully told him about Odango's reunion with her boyfriend after Mamoru-san returned to Tokyo, decided that Shiho's guest needed a longer break to recover.

Weighing all the options available, Seiya considered returning to the bedroom to prune the roses and go through the songs for the musical again (a waste of time since he had sung them for years!) or do the dishes in the kitchen lest they pile up and Shiho rediscover her violent side, which seemed to have been lying dormant since the "opera" at La Fenice. The kitchen won because it allowed Seiya to stay in Shiho's vicinity while the roses could wait. Although the case was closed, Seiya still needed to protect Shiho from Kudo's questions.

When Seiya was filling the sink, his girlfriend left her guest alone for a moment to approach him and—unscrupulously misusing the convenient angle of the door and the cupboards, which hid her right arm from Kudo's field of vision—ran a teasing finger down his back. She could do it for him today, she softly murmured. Kudo was _her_ detective, after all.

As Seiya suspected, Shiho loved having both of her men on the scene because she liked having the best of both worlds: flirting with Kudo while tempting Seiya, as she was doing now. Trying to ignore her roaming hand on his hips, which shamelessly travelled from his back to his front while its pretty owner decorously leaned against the counter in order to conceal her risqué behaviour from her guest, Seiya only smirked and told her that she could do the dishes when Odango visited them—an innuendo which, so he hoped, only Shiho could understand. If Odango were here, they would have so many plates to clean that they could excuse themselves and disappear into the kitchen together while Odango and her friends would stay in the living room to banter about Odango's bottomless hole of a stomach. And they would have plenty of time for secret kisses and the most outrageous caresses while doing the dishes at the slowest pace possible…

Bored by his lame reaction to her advances (what did she expect if _she_ was the one who had made him promise to behave like the ideal host?), Shiho returned to Kudo and complained about Seiya bullying her—a monstrous lie, for which the earth should open up and swallow her!

Throwing the two people in the living room furtive, watchful glances, Seiya noticed in dismay that Kudo was undressing his girlfriend with his eyes while she—lingering at the coffee table in front of the detective—seemed to be enjoying the attention. Remembering how it felt to be the third party in a love triangle and how well Mamoru-san treated him although he had dated his fiancée during his absence, Seiya told himself to cut the detective some slack. Learning that the woman one loved was living with another man was already traumatizing enough. Dealing with the possibility that her life partner might be the culprit of the case one was trying to solve must be intolerable.

And yet… seeing the happy smile in Shiho's eyes whenever she gazed at her detective, Seiya was reminded of Haruka-san's words when she told him that Kudo Shinichi was in Venice: Since Seiya was so blissfully clueless, Haruka-san felt obliged to inform him about how things usually went when a woman realized that she could finally have the man she had always wanted. After cursing herself for not grabbing her chance earlier, she would automatically find fault with her present partner.

_Koneko-chan will examine all your irritating habits under a magnifying glass until they turn into impossible obstacles to her happiness. She will find meaning in the most mundane gesture of his and elevate their love to a fateful star-crossed romance while she will overlook all the everyday things you do for her. All the sacrifices you have to make for your relationship won't matter at all or will only strengthen her conviction that you, too, will benefit from a break-up. Familiarity breeds contempt, Seiya, and a man whom she can see every day and in whose arms she can lie every night can never compare with a man whom she has always been dreaming of but couldn't have. I'm only warning you so that you can brace yourself for the heartache when everything you two have built up together collapses and she abandons you for another lover…_

x.

Ignoring Kudo was an impossible task, as Kudo's grief and anger resembled a giant black hole, which swallowed everyone and everything in its vicinity. The detective didn't make the slightest attempt to control himself—and Seiya was still cudgeling his perplexed brains about why Kudo would be so openly jealous of him if Shiho and Kudo were only good friends when Kudo's outburst suddenly clarified the situation.

"We were… partners—or so I thought."

Astonished by the implication of Kudo's words (it wasn't only Kudo's choice of vocabulary but also his manner of speaking and his voice, which alarmed Seiya), Seiya exchanged a worried glance with Shiho, who was visibly upset that he had to learn the truth in this way. Obviously, Kudo and Shiho had been in a relationship, which she didn't end properly before she left—and Seiya should have guessed it earlier since Seiya himself had gone through hours and days of agony whenever she fled. It would explain Kudo's bitterness and jealousy, which Kudo wouldn't feel if he didn't have a claim on her love. Apparently, the detective had a much better excuse for his behaviour than Seiya thought.

In the beginning, Shiho must have lied to Seiya for fear that he would judge her or ask her to break up with Kudo via phone or mail. And now that she had been lying about their relationship for so long, it was only natural that she didn't dare to tell Seiya the truth about her detective, whom she must have written regularly without finding the courage to inform him about her new boyfriend (or did she tell Kudo about Seiya in one of the mails which the real Kudo Shinichi never received?)… Haruka-san must have known about this mess, which would explain Shiho's fear whenever Haruka-san put pressure on her.

This wouldn't be the first time that Shiho had lied to him, and Seiya, who was accustomed to her evasiveness and secretiveness, remained imperturbable and unimpressed. Feeling sorry for his girlfriend, who had one boyfriend too many now that her past love had come to Venice, Seiya only smiled. One ex-boyfriend more or less really didn't count although they had to make it clear to Kudo that Shiho couldn't return to him because she would rather stay with her adorable, loving life partner.

Embarrassed by his own behaviour, Kudo changed the topic and, much to Seiya's disappointment and Shiho's relief, began to talk about Michiru-sama instead. Terrified, Shiho once again darted Seiya another anxious, troubled look, which he dutifully ignored so that she could calm down. With some regret, Seiya had to concede that if Michiru-sama had been the one who had been sent to Pandora's Box to rescue Shiho that night, Hattori Heiji would still be alive. In contrast to Odango and her friends, Michiru-sama was chillingly cold and calculating whenever the situation called for it. Yaten, perpetually cranky and foul-mouthed, would forever be hampered by his emotions whereas Michiru-sama would simply brush her personal feelings aside and kill the enemy if it was a necessary condition for rescuing her ally.

Through the kitchen window, Seiya could see Nadia Gorowitz leaning against their gate. To his surprise, she didn't throw another awkward love letter into the mailbox but only pulled a cigarette packet, which he recognized at first glance, out of her pocket to wave it in the air. Cocking her head to grin at him even though she couldn't know that he was looking at her, she shook the packet and then took out a blue and white capsule, which she demonstratively held against the light before she returned it to the packet.

With a last victorious smirk, she left—mincing on her high heels along the Canal and then over the bridge until she disappeared behind a wall. If this wasn't only a trick to make Seiya believe that she had stopped watching him, she would be waiting for him at La Fenice to terrorize him on the opening night, revelling in her victory for a day before visiting him in his dressing room. And Seiya, who didn't want Shiho to worry, pretended to focus on doing the dishes while he was fantasizing about following the blonde beast just to throttle her.

To distract Kudo from the Pandora's Box issue, Shiho chose exactly this moment to inform the detective about Haruka-san's mails to Shizuka-san and the editors although she naturally omitted the detail that Haruka-san had blackmailed her. Prim and proper as he was, however, Kudo argued that Haruka-san was right when she said that dealing with the publicity would help.

"She didn't want to 'help' us become an official couple, Kudo! Tenoh-san said that this was blind love and that it's a waste of time because it's not going anywhere."

Seiya could hear every single word clearly although Shiho was practically whispering into Kudo's ear (or rather into Kudo's face, which Seiya, who didn't like how their noses were almost touching, observed). Since Haruka-san was convinced that "this would only end in tears"—Shiho told the detective—she planned to separate Shiho and Seiya as soon as possible so that they both could move on and find other people to marry.

"Other people" were, in Shiho's case, Kudo Shinichi—the more sensible choice for her—as Haruka-san had always tried to convince Seiya (who, meanwhile, had begun to suspect that the possessive and prissy detective would only bore Shiho to death if they dated). It was simply ridiculous how Haruka-san always tried to persuade Seiya to leave his girlfriend, with whom he had a perfectly happy, perfectly functional relationship, so that another man could take his place—and Seiya doubted that he had really found the answer to this puzzle in Shiho's past relationship with Kudo because not even Haruka-san was capable of such absurd reasoning…

The detective, too, was most puzzling. Without showing an iota of compassion for Shiho and Seiya when Shiho told him about Haruka-san's continual harassment, the sleuth had the audacity to suggest that Shiho leave Seiya in Venice and fly back to Tokyo with him: Seiya could visit Shiho whenever he wanted, Kudo said—as if having a rendezvous once in a blue moon would suffice when Seiya and Shiho were accustomed to seeing each other at least twice a day. For all that, Kudo cared about her and only tried to protect her—which was the only reason why Seiya, who distractedly noticed that he had just spaced out and stopped doing the dishes, didn't tell Shiho's ill-mannered ex to stop treating Seiya and Shiho's relationship like one of these casual "friendships" which was occasionally livened up by a booty call.

x.

The real problem lay in the differences between Kudo's and Seiya's attitudes to love and women, Seiya reflected. Kudo, despite expecting all females to be meek, demure girls who didn't even dare to borrow a napkin out of a male friend's trouser pocket, took romantic relationships lightly like most workaholic single men did. Seiya, on the other hand, had never been interested in wishy-washy affairs. To Seiya's relief, Shiho didn't sound like she was in a dilemma when she told Kudo in no uncertain terms that she wasn't going with him.

He misunderstood when she said she was going to stay in Venice for four years—Kudo claimed in a feeble attempt to regain Shiho's respect. He thought she was going to return to Tokyo…

If it was really a misunderstanding and Kudo believed that Shiho and Seiya only had a fling, Kudo must be even more delusional than Haruka-san had ever been. Most likely, Kudo had projected his attitude towards women onto Seiya and was now surprised (and disheartened?) to realize that Seiya and Shiho were taking their relationship more seriously than he thought.

Still, Seiya couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy—just like Shiho, who was stroking the detective's shoulder and squeezing his arm with the same gesture with which she always comforted Hotaru-chan after a failed attempt at copying "Michiru-mama's" drawings. Perhaps they would live in Tokyo again in a few years if the situation changed and Seiya began to spend more time in Japan than in Europe—she explained—but right now it was impossible.

Even if he hadn't seen her faraway gaze, Seiya would have heard the regret in her voice. He could tell that she was dying to meet her Professor and the Detective Boys, whom she often mentioned in passing.

But they could go back to Japan whenever she wanted, Seiya pointed out. After all, he could find a job anywhere, and they still had the apartment in Azabu Juuban. Taiki had also asked Ami-chan to look after Seiya's first apartment, where Seiya once lived with Kakyuu and where he always stayed whenever he returned to Tokyo, so that Shiho and Seiya could move in right after the musical.

She'd rather stay here and teach the advanced ballet classes, Shiho insisted. "Maybe in a few years," she added in a matter-of-fact tone although Seiya could hear the smile in her voice, "after the wedding."

The eagerly anticipated and much feared word, which had more than once become the prelude to yet another separation whenever it was brought up in a serious moment, had the same effect on Kudo as on Seiya, who almost let go of the glass he was holding. Reacting at Haruka-san's speed, the detective snatched Shiho's wrist and stared up at her in horror as if she had just informed him that she was going to die of an incurable disease. And for a fleeting moment, Seiya was nineteen again, attending the wedding of the girl he loved with a smile and congratulating himself that her idea to turn the evening into a masquerade and his idea to appear as a ninja allowed him to wear black on her wedding...

Bewildered by Kudo's unexpected gesture, Shiho only froze and—like a helpless mouse waiting to be swallowed whole by a cobra—returned her guest's incredulous stare. Since neither of them was able to utter a word, Seiya felt that it was his task to break the sudden oppressive silence, which had fallen over the room.

It's just a running joke of hers, Seiya told the detective, whose world was falling apart like Seiya's when he received Odango's wedding invitation. In truth, Shiho was so terrified of marriage that she would always bail whenever Seiya brought it up. It had happened so often by now that Seiya had completely lost his interest in marriage as well. They're never going to marry, period! To both of them, it's only a redundant piece of paper and another unnecessary bureaucratic procedure.

In retrospect, Seiya didn't know why he said those words, which he immediately regretted when he saw Shiho's crestfallen face and it dawned on him that she had mentioned marriage for the third time within a day. For a moment, he had irrational sided with his rival and neglected her. She was now sipping her tea in gloomy silence while her gaze lingered longingly on the half-bloomed roses on the table, which she had compared to an "autumn wedding bouquet." This time (unless Seiya was dumb enough to spoil it all by cornering her and trying to uncover her secret), Seiya knew with certainty that she wouldn't run away.

Marriage or no marriage—Seiya would do anything to make Shiho happy. If Shiho wanted marriage, she could have it whenever and wherever she wanted. Seiya would always give Shiho whatever she needed just as he could become whoever she wanted him to be. Seiya's mother once told Seiya that his greatest strength was his capacity to adapt and to change. Kudo might always be _the_ modern Sherlock Holmes—but Seiya, even when he wasn't using his acting skills, could be Sherlock Holmes and John Watson and Godfrey Norton and Irene Adler and James Moriarty…

_Your present isn't enough to improve my motivation to stay alive: I really don't need a lucky charm which has been made for someone else—actually, I already have enough luck for two or three people. If I could choose another reward after returning from Chicago in one piece, I'd like to have you instead._

When he was blow-drying his hair in the bathroom and checking his messages on his phone, Seiya had deleted all the histrionic mails Shizuka-san had sent him and only replied to one mail, which was holding the key to his questions: Odango had sent him a photo of a carefully wrapped little package, which seemed to contain a pocket-sized notebook or a tiny portfolio.

 _Haruka-san asked me to hand you her "present" when we meet in Venice. I really don't understand the meaning of this!_ To emphasize the seriousness of her message, Odango had even protected it with the Night Baron copy.

It was only one of Haruka-san's silly little games—Seiya had replied. Odango shouldn't say a word to either Taiki or Yaten and give Seiya the package tomorrow after dinner when no one was looking. The "present" must be the reason why Shiho insisted on keeping the key to their mailbox, Seiya mused. Since he wasn't Pandora, who couldn't resist peeking into Pandora's Box, Seiya would simply give Shiho Haruka-san's package unopened so that Shiho could get rid of it—and they were going to marry after the musical and forget about whatever past deed which was so extremely horrible that she would rather break up with him than admit it.

x.

* * *

 

**One effective strategy…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

One effective strategy which, despite its viciousness and cruelty, often worked like a charm was to defame the boyfriend of your love interest—and Kudo's question about Seiya's reputation of womanizing didn't serve any other purpose than raising doubts as to Seiya's fidelity unless the detective was really so priggish that he felt personally offended by Seiya's "international repute". For Shiho's sake, Seiya grimly bit back the retort that it wouldn't matter if he had been with half of the world's female population since his past didn't have anything to do with his current relationship. He had presented himself as Shiho's amiable and supportive life partner, whom even a rival would have no problem to accept if said rival wasn't such a self-centred, hypocritical jerk.

Admittedly, Seiya couldn't stand Mamoru-san in the beginning because Seiya believed Mamoru-san to be an asshole who had left his girlfriend in the worst possible way: ignoring her letters and mails and calls instead of breaking up with her. But Seiya instantly changed his opinion when he met Odango's quiet, reserved boyfriend in person and realized that Mamoru-san was the brooding, insecure type of man who attached much more importance to the future than to the present. Unlike Kudo, Seiya had never resorted to backhanded remarks and cynical ploys, and he was revolted by the realization that Shiho's much admired, shiny master sleuth would stoop to that level…

All these thoughts must have raced through Seiya's mind since it was child's play for Shiho to read them off his face. Although he still tried to keep up a pleasant attitude, Seiya definitely seemed more confrontational and negative than usual—retaliating against Shiho when she spilled the beans about his weak spot for Odango and Kaioh-san and snapping at her when she complained about the steamy "choreography" during "The Music of the Night". In truth, Shiho did give Kudo a slightly distorted version of the situation when she exaggerated it a bit—omitting the detail that Christine Daaé's lush, thick, lace-trimmed satin corset, which Hino-san always wore under the translucent nightdress, probably prevented both Seiya and Hino-san from feeling anything. But nothing ever riled Shiho's imperturbable boyfriend, much less trifles like these. A person who didn't know Seiya would ascribe his unusual aggression to the typical stage fright which plague even the most experienced performers before the opening night. Having survived more than one production and endured a dozen metamorphoses, which transformed her Beauty into the Beast, however, Shiho knew exactly what was going on.

x.

The first time it happened, it was most disturbing because she couldn't make sense of the situation at all. Practically overnight, her new boyfriend—a seemingly flawless example of the male species, who until then had read every wish off her eyes—transformed into a second (infinitely more beautiful and less violent but just as insufferable!) version of Gin. For a whole week, Seiya would spend his mornings sipping cocktails and snacking on junk food in bed and his afternoons pacing their apartment in a daze while avoiding talking to her unless she addressed him first. He would also ruffle his hair, rant about the sorry state of the world, and imbibe so much alcohol in his waking hours that she had to confiscate his keys for fear that he could get the idea to drive out into the lagoon under the influence.

Despite her complaints and his solemn promises to behave, Seiya didn't show any inclination to change back but developed a philosophizing streak instead. Shiho had already drafted a sixty-nine-page letter rambling on how she was still in love with him but was going to break up with him if he didn't stop ordering gin in crates when she found _The Night of the Iguana_ in his jacket pocket. All at once, a lightbulb went off in her head and it finally dawned on her that she had been living with the latest incarnation of Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon for days. Afterwards, Shiho was almost thankful that Seiya, even during his terrifying transmogrification into Tennessee Williams' grumpy anti hero, respected their relationship enough not to betray her with other women although he definitely seemed more aware of (and much, much more interested in?) all his pretty, scantily clad admirers than he used to be.

Disturbingly, Seiya could remember well how he acted but failed to see her problem. For all he knew, he got carried away by a role for a few days and spent all his free time getting hammered—so what? Since he was the opinion that he had kept strictly to the ground rules of "no violence, no cheating, and no neglect" even when he was plastered (Shiho had to admit that even when he was intoxicated, Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon never let her go to sleep without a perfectly balanced amount of goodnight kisses and caresses), he wasn't aware of doing anything wrong.

She would have liked to work out neat, workable longtime solutions to their little problem with him—but Seiya has a way of distracting her which she is unable to fight. When she tried to discuss the issue with Taiki-san, the most sensible of the three brothers, her worries were dismissed with a single gesture of incomprehension. Like most great natural talents whose character development couldn't quite keep up with their genius, his younger brother (who had stayed a child at heart) often lost the fight against his obsessions, Taiki-san reasoned. Shiho had better accept Seiya with all his faults since Seiya had always been a free spirit who couldn't stand being tied down. It shouldn't be hard for her to forgive Seiya out of all people since Seiya stoically endured her fickle moods and indulged her every whim (which, frankly speaking—Taiki-san added with a slight smirk—no normal man who hadn't grown up with a brother like Yaten would be able to do without ending up in a mental institution).

"Why, Seiya has always been unprofessional! You should have seen him on the set of our first live action—when Akane-san cast him as Young Moriarty," Yaten-san only snickered when Shiho, in her despair, swallowed her pride and turned to him—her greatest rival in love!—for support. Instead of assisting her in her unequal fight against his two brothers, who would join forces to play pranks on him and her whenever they could, however, Yaten-san only yawned and went off to take a nap when she asked him what exactly "Young Moriarty" had done.

x.

Kudo has just excused himself to go to the bathroom, which Shiho blames on the amount of tea Seiya and she have forced on him while Seiya claims that her detective is only trying to continue the investigation by inspecting their bathroom and their medicine chest. Filling the small basket in her arm with three glasses, three napkins, and a small bowl of potato chips, Shiho watches her boyfriend squeeze the juice of six orange halves into the jug on the counter in front of him with a frown.

"You've promised to be as perfect as Kaioh-san's Stradivarius after tuning, Seiya! I'm only reminding you in case you've forgotten." She knows he is feeling the overwhelming urge to transform into the Phantom now that the performances are about to start. But if he gives in to his dark side and scares her friend away by behaving like a suspicious, controlling maniac, she is going to make sure that his poor underrated stand-in will get the chance to prove himself on the opening night while he—after ingesting a mysterious substance—will be writhing in pain on the floor of their corridor.

"Who is the suspicious, controlling maniac here?" He stares at her in disbelief. "And besides, Kudo is not just your 'friend'—he has 'competitive rival' written all over his face! If you don't want him to be all over you by the end of next week—and trust me, this will be much worse than it was in Gentile's case—you'll have to discourage him now."

Rendered speechless by her boyfriend's delusion, Shiho only chuckles at his naiveté. Even though she prefers by far the real Seiya to this pre-opening-night Erik, who threatens to turn into a more sinister and diabolical Phantom with every performance, it amuses her that he has become so insecure all of a sudden.

"Is that the reason why you had to deliver the grand speech about us seeing each other much too seldom to bore each other silly? I bet he found it laughable at best." She turns on the taps for him to wash his hands. "By the way…" She shoots him a puzzled look. "Why don't you ever use our juicer?"

"Because it's redundant!" He takes the basket from her and gingerly places the jug of orange juice into it after drying his hands on the towel she has handed him. Then they spontaneously kiss before she pulls him to the winding stairs, joking that if she were still wearing her red-riding-hood coat, he would resemble the wolf who, after surrendering to his unlikely mistress, was carrying the basket for her on the way to her grandmother.

"Or on the way to her ex-boyfriend," he darkly remarks. "I'm usually not jealous of your exes, but I don't get why you had to lie to me about Kudo."

"My ex?" She stares at him aghast. "Do we look like ex-lovers to you?" Seiya's delusion has taken on a paranoid quality, which can become extremely troublesome if he lets go of reality completely like he always does whenever he gets carried away by a role he can't deal with. And no matter how ridiculous the idea sounds, Shiho can see the parallel he must have drawn between the love triangle in _The Phantom of the Opera_ and their current situation. Accustomed to pursuing her while she remains indecisive about whether to stay or to leave, Seiya is convinced that their unbalanced relationship is imperiled by an attractive alternative.

"I should say no—but truth to tell, yes! I thought he wouldn't show his jealousy so openly if there hadn't been anything between him and you." He places the basket on the chair between the glass door to the roof terrace and the door to the external staircase, which leads into the courtyard, and hands her a cardigan on the hook. He looks more puzzled than relieved at the realization that Kudo and she have only been friends, and Shiho wonders whether she has mistaken his curiosity for anxiety.

"Kudo isn't jealous! He is just overprotective, as always." Despite his thick cardigan and her warm outdoor slippers, she involuntarily shivers when he opens the door and the damp, cool November air streams in. In response, Seiya shuts the door again and walks downstairs to fetch her a blanket like he always did at Tenoh-san's place. Since Kudo and he are similar in this aspect and Shiho, much to her frustration, has often mistaken Kudo's protective gestures for genuine romantic interest, it has taken her a whole evening of debating with herself to even consider the possibility that Seiya absolutely didn't mean the two of them to share a flat with each other as eternally platonic friends à la Watson&Holmes when he asked her to move in with him.

Until she met Seiya, Shiho had believed that love would always enter her life with the stealthy gait of an experienced hunter or a phantom thief just because all of her past infatuations had followed the same pattern. Gin, suave and sophisticated, was the only interesting man in her vicinity when Sherry grew up; and she was fascinated by his penchant for fast cars, his hedonistic ways, his caustic wit, and his habit of using metaphors when he introduced the Organization's philosophy to her. Rye, her sister's boyfriend, reminded her of Gin in the olden times—before the toil of the never-ending executions of traitors and moles turned the idealistic dreamer Sherry knew from her childhood days into a bitter, cynical, paranoid misanthrope whose socks and underwear she was tired of washing. In both cases, love came to her slowly and quietly—like spring after a long, bleak winter whose end she couldn't see.

Things were slightly different when it came to Kudo. While it didn't take Haibara Ai long to discover that she found Kudo-kun's razor-sharp mind, combined with his childlike naiveté, extremely alluring, Kudo Shinichi was off limits right from the start since he had a girlfriend who resembled her sister too much. As far as Ai was concerned, "the girl from the detective agency" and Kudo-kun might as well have been engaged; and Ai dreaded the very thought of being tossed into another love triangle after barely surviving the tragedy her fleeting attraction to her sister's boyfriend caused. This time, love was to her the heavy, intolerable burden she had to carry to redeem herself after Akemi-nee-san's death. She eventually moved on and enjoyed what life had to offer apart from romance—the ancient wonder drug which, once it had worn off, only left an unpleasant, bitter, sticky residue.

In the end, she discovered that it was easier for her to love Kudo with the selfless, pleasant adoration of platonic love. While it didn't feel good, it felt right to admit to herself that Kudo belonged to Ran.

The price for love, in any case, was far too high—so Ai believed—just as the debt afterwards seemed too massive a burden for her to clear. And since Ai had defined love for herself as a mental sickness which crept up on one silently and unobtrusively until it grew into a malevolent, cancerous thing which would ultimately wreck one's peace and destroy one's life and only result in a happy outcome for a few extremely lucky people, to whom she obviously didn't belong, Ai was bewildered when she woke up in Hotaru-chan's bed the morning after her rescue and realized that she had to reassess her world view. For a whole night, she had been struggling with hallucinations and nightmares, in which the voice of the stranger who protected her from Gin and Tenoh-san triggered the sort of euphoria she only felt when Kudo visited her for the simple purpose of having an animated chat. (Ai couldn't tell why Tenoh-san played a menacing part in her nightmares, but she didn't care since dreams were inherently irrational.) And the remembrance of his voice gave her the fluttering feeling which only intense fear or—and this was simply ridiculous but her mind compulsively repeated it until she gave in and admitted it to herself—the first moonstruck phase of love caused.

She can still see the whole scene as clearly as if she had secretly filmed it and saved it to the Organization's cloud to study it at least once a week—pausing at the very moment when Kudo's cryptic words that she shouldn't run away from her fate suddenly emerged from the back of her mind and began to make sense to her: She was watching the sun setting over the beach from the window of Hotaru-chan's children's room where she was lying, listening to Tenoh-san's account of all the things which had happened during the last two days and wondering whether the two extremely stylish, absolutely stunning young men walking past her window could really be the same rude guys who had threatened to throw her back into the sea again, when her mysterious rescuer suddenly made a startling, dreamlike entrance upon the scene and she realized that he didn't only have the most wonderful voice she had ever heard but also the most hypnotic eyes she had ever seen.

x.

Giving in to the sentimental urge to reenact the beginning of their relationship, which was then just as fraught with insecurity and difficulties as it still is now, Shiho opens the door and steps out into the cold afternoon without waiting for the blanket. From personal experience, she knows that minor inconveniences and discomforts are usually indispensable for preventing a long-time relationship from sliding down the comfort trap, which can kill off the initial chemistry and romance between a couple faster than jealousy and physical absence can.

While she is cleaning and setting the table on the roof terrace, she acknowledges with a tinge of anxiety how extremely pleasant her current life is and that such a phase cannot be expected to last for long. There are so many things which can go wrong. If Seiya receives Tenoh-san's message via messenger instead of via post before Shiho can intercept it; if a former scientist, who once worked in her lab, recognizes her face in the news and remembers Sherry; if, despite Three Lights' efforts to salvage the situation, the former members of the Organization or the blackmailed big names snap, her current life, which she enjoys so much, will be over in an instant. To make matters worse, Seiya isn't the type of partner with whom one can spend a life on the run—a fact which Shiho, even without Tenoh-san's warnings, could see at first glance.

It's like gliding through the air with a hang glider whose condition she hasn't been able to test in advance while knowing that the weather is going to worsen, Shiho thinks. She once got a taste of it when Seiya, in his temporary insanity, borrowed Kuroba Kaito's hang glider for the first date with her. When she shook off the fear and began to enjoy the ride, she was reminded of the time she rode a snowboard with Kudo. Seiya, who gave her the same feelings of security and thrill and suspense, was the type of lunatic she could imagine being with for life, she realized. And perhaps she wouldn't have minded at all if the hang glider had broken at that very moment and they both had crashed into the waves below.

The glass door opens once more, and Shiho has barely caught sight of her boyfriend's head when she is covered from head to waist by her wool blanket.

"You're messing up my hair!" She tries a frown and then gives up. Love waxes and wanes like the moon or, to put it more poetically, rises and ebbs like the water in Venice. This is one of the moments in which she can't be angry with him.

"Don't catch a cold!" He kisses her neck after she has disentangled herself from the blanket and thrown it over her shoulders. "Rei-chan will kill me if I abandon her during her first musical."

"So? Are you worried about your own health or about 'Rei-chan'?"

"About both." Disappointingly, he refuses to accept her tyrannical reign with the confession that she is the only one he cares for. "Although—" he respectfully touches her toned arms, "—when I see these biceps, I fear your wrath more."

"Good! Do behave accordingly when Kudo comes back." She ensconces herself in her favourite chair next to the balustrade and pulls up her legs to tuck her feet under her knees while Seiya grabs a napkin to wipe the remaining chairs, which have gathered dirt due to the lack of use during the last weeks, for him and Kudo. "Speak of Kudo, where have you left him?"

"I heard him rummage through the medicine chest in the bathroom when I fetched you your blanket. Maybe he is searching our bedroom at the moment. Want to bet?"

"You're impossible!"

"No, _he_ is!" He sighs, leaning against the wet balustrade with an air of petulance, and Shiho, who can't bear to see his d'Artagnan shirt, which she discovered in a secondhand costume shop shortly after their arrival in Venice, get soaked, draws him away from the pink and terra cotta column down to the chair next to her.

"Pottering around in other people's medicine chest as if he were a kid in a toy store…" he mumbles against her lips as they resume kissing, which has become her favourite pastime. She can tell that he is imitating Nadia Gorowitz now, having become allergic to their stalker's voice even though she seldom hears it. It's the artificial, strained tone, which she instantly recognizes: the voice of a woman who has taken singing lessons but learned the wrong techniques and is now applying the theories she has learned in practice without noticing that her voice suffers significant harm.

To the best of her recollection, Shiho can't remember Seiya imitating his stalker, whom he can't stand. Shiho also doesn't know whether she is supposed to hate or pity her. On the one hand, Shiho is apprehensive about Gorowitz's single-minded obsession with Seiya and her uncanny ability to walk the line between cruelty and sweetness. On the other hand, Shiho knows exactly how agonizing unrequited love can be. She has suffered from it long enough to feel for the people who are forced to live with it for years. In addition, she is more worried about Seiya's general tendency to draw radical people to him.

If Shiho is honest about her feelings, she can't even count herself out when she thinks back to the beginning. After learning from Taiki-san that Seiya was bound to evoke obsessively strong emotions in other people, whose passionate yearning he had to flee on a regular basis lest it twisted into pure, violent hatred, Ai realized with a sense of utter humiliation that Taiki-san, accustomed to dealing with Seiya's fans, was aware of her emotional reaction to Seiya and was trying to warn her before she could make a fool of herself. She could tell that, in Taiki-san's opinion, his younger brother was way out of her league and Ai had better deal with her crush on Seiya before it escalated.

Ai's natural reaction was to hold back, to assess her chances of arousing Seiya Kou's interest, and (in consequence of admitting to herself that her chances were slimmer than the waists of the baby ballerinas of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo) to analyze her new feelings in order to build up her weakened defense mechanism. Common sense advised her to nip the unreasonable, doomed infatuation in the bud. One unrequited crush was enough to hurt her fragile ego, which had taken a nasty blow after her failed relationship with Gin. In fact, she still hadn't recovered from her unrequited love for Kudo, who was totally oblivious to her feelings. A second unrequited infatuation of this dimension would effectively smash her sense of dignity and self-worth to smithereens.

For the sake of natural equilibrium—so Ai told herself—the ravishingly beautiful stranger with the voice which had begun to haunt her in her dreams must be soul-destroyingly boring, mind-shatteringly dumb. And since Ai naturally valued character and intelligence more than looks, she wasn't going to fall in love with him.

She was only going to spend a bit of time with Seiya-san to get to know him, which was going to cure her of him, she thought, wondering whether she was lying to herself this time. Oddly enough, Seiya seemed attracted to her as well, actively seeking her company although he enjoyed mocking her by treating her like a real child. Ai was elated by the attention he gave her although she couldn't explain why he liked her so much. Even now that they've been living with each other for almost four years, Shiho doesn't know what he sees in her. And considering the strange gazes she gets whenever she meets his friends, Shiho suspects that they don't have a clue either.

Tucking her feet under his thighs to change her posture without sacrificing the luxury of warm feet, she wraps her arms around his neck, interlaces her fingers, and demands an explanation as to why he seems so interested in Gorowitz these days, accepting Gorowitz's invitation to talk with her in private as if Gorowitz belonged to the group of his nicer fans, who politely line up in front of the opera house to get an autograph from him.

"She is getting on my nerves," he murmurs, planting a trail of kisses from her ear to her chin. "I'm going to get rid of her for good so that we can be alone again."

"And how do you plan to do it?"

"I don't have a plan, I'll just improvise, as always." Leaning back in his chair, he flashes her a careless smile. "I'll talk to her, even scare her a bit if I have to." His eyes darken; and as he tilts his head in a whimsical parody of the Phantom, he throws his right wrist into the air in a smooth, circular motion, which she has already seen during his rehearsals. "If she tries my patience—and that goes for your detective as well if he can't keep his hands off you—I'll wring her scrawny neck after catching her with my magical lasso!"

"Don't overdo it!" Shiho warns him, adding that Gorowitz could create a scandal and ruin their holiday or even his brothers' comeback if he taunts her too much. Before she can add that she is amused by his jealousy at Kudo, as ludicrous as it is, he hurriedly pushes her away from him, whispering that he can hear Kudo's steps.

Two seconds afterwards, she can hear them as well. Through the translucent curtains in front of the glass door, which have been partly pushed aside, she can see Kudo slip into his jacket and his shoes, which Seiya has carried upstairs when he fetched the blanket for her. What a pity that Kudo is just as immune to Seiya's charm as Seiya is immune to Kudo's influence, Shiho thinks, beholding her detective's gloomy face. The last time they met, Tenoh-san told Shiho that a meeting between Seiya and Kudo would be a complete disaster because Shiho would have a hard time to choose, Kudo would never give her up, and Seiya would never share her, resulting in a situation in which Shiho could only lose—but Shiho had laughed off Tenoh-san's theory, which was built on the far-fetched premise that Kudo nurtured a secret love for her and which neglected the most important detail.

Shiho has her feelings perfectly compartmentalized. In her mind, Kudo is connected to everything great and exceptional and admirable in this flawed, messy world—her time with the Professor and the Detective Boys and him has given her all the joys of a normal life, which her upbringing within the Organization could never give her. But it felt like the proverbial thread of fate, which had got entangled in the hands of other men, had ultimately led her to the moment when Seiya and she kissed—when she discovered that all the song lyrics she had dismissed as being unbelievably hackneyed and mawkish were true: All of a sudden, water tasted like wine, each kiss was an inspiration, no word was left to speak, and the fundamental things would always apply as time goes by…

x.

 _You didn't tell me that you were going out with Seiya-kun,_ Hotaru-chan darkly remarked when Shiho passed her room on the way to Meioh-san's bedroom (after Hotaru-chan and Meioh-san returned from New York, Meioh-san insisted that Shiho move into her room while she stay in the smaller guest room until Shiho left); and Shiho uneasily stopped at the door to the small but elegant Victorian-style children's room, racking her brains for an explanation for why she had kept her relationship with Seiya secret while he was in Chicago.

 _We wanted to wait until he came back from Chicago because we weren't sure that he'd make it,_ she gently said, deciding that Hotaru-chan, who knew about the Organization and Seiya's family, was too observant and mature to be lied to. _I was going to tell you first._ The girl looked hurt although Shiho wasn't sure that the emotion she saw in her deep mauve eyes was really wounded pride. If Hotaru-chan were older, Shiho would have sworn that it was betrayed trust and intense jealousy.

 _Do you know what you're getting yourself into?_ Realizing that she was still wearing her paint-stained apron, Hotaru-chan quickly took it off and dropped it into the armchair near the door. _All the members of the Organization are following him now because to them, he is_ that person's _chosen heir._

She does because he has told her everything, Shiho calmly said, kneeing down to look the little girl in the eye. Even before he went to Chicago, Seiya had admitted to her that all the things Tenoh-san had told her about his family were true. Still, they were going to Venice together and simply ignore the problem as if it had never existed. People easily grew accustomed to both war and peace. In a few years, nobody would remember the Black Organization anymore.

 _If you like him so much, you can borrow him for eight years, until I'm old enough to marry him,_ Hotaru-chan had graciously said, much to Shiho's astonishment and disappointment, as Shiho had begun to believe Hotaru-chan to be in love with her, considering the girl's lesbian adoptive parents and the special affection the girl displayed towards her. This was so… disappointingly typical! _Has he told you that we're engaged?_ Hotaru-chan smirked and wiped an invisible speck of dust off her smart Gothic Lolita dress, which Meioh-san had custom-made for her. _Maybe you haven't noticed—but he has brought me Christmas presents and hidden them in the drawer of my bedside table._

Only _me_ and not you, she might as well have said. Although she was baffled by the sudden turn of events, Shiho wisely held back the protest that Seiya meant the books he had left in the drawer to be Hotaru-chan's birthday presents, which Hotaru-chan was supposed to find in January, and that Seiya did give Shiho a Christmas present when he gave her his key.

 _Really? When and where did you two get engaged to each other?_ Shiho asked seriously, with a perfectly straight face, fighting hard the urge to smile.

 _He didn't really say yes but he told me he would think about it,_ Hotaru-chan reluctantly admitted before she took a long breath to recount the whole story in one single sentence: _He said he did love me and was going to wait for me but wanted me to ask him again in ten to fifteen years because love could always change when I asked him to marry me on Usagi-san's wedding._

 _Is it true that Hotaru-chan once proposed to you and that you said you would be waiting for her?_ Shiho asked Seiya that night. _If that's true, she is right to be angry at you!_ He was practicing with a calligraphy pen at Meioh-san's Victorian desk, drawing Hotaru-chan's initials in black ink on a creamy sheet of paper because his neglected "fiancée" had demanded a written declaration from him now that he had dared to take a lover without asking her.

 _I didn't expect her to remember it!_ He groaned as the ink once again bled through the thin sheet of paper. _She was lonely because Odango's cousin, who was her only friend, had just moved away. I was sad because Odango got married. So, when she caught that bouquet and asked me to marry her, I said that she should ask me again in ten to fifteen years…_

x.


	35. Part Four: The wedding...

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**The wedding…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

The wedding was a dream of diamonds and pearls and tears and roses and lace and silk and satin—all the materials fairy tales and dreams were made of. Perfectly timed in late spring between the bride's and the groom's birthday, it took place at one of the most beautiful and most secluded estates in the world: at Michiru-mama's residence, which she had inherited from the cheerful, promiscuous French aristocrat and actor who had fathered her.

Now that the sun had set, they had left the French rose garden for the house, where the candlelight cast mysterious shadows on the silverware, the gilt masks, and the velvet costumes. Princesses, princes, knights, and fairies were gathering around the round tables, feasting on the dinner Makoto-san (the tall dryad in an emerald silk dress and rose-shaped earrings) had prepared for the evening. While all the guests openly admired and adored the king and the queen—the radiant royal couple that was meant to be the main attraction tonight—their gazes would frequently stray towards the left corner near the fireplace, the round table where the three ninjas in black sat.

Murmurs and hushed whispers had been replaced by sighs and chuckles and even squeals when they finally turned up: much too late for the ceremony due to the heavy traffic and the delayed flight—so Taiki-san claimed—but just in time for the wedding reception. Imposingly tall and quietly elegant in his close-fitted black ninja suit and his lavender cape, which he had borrowed (or bought, or even nicked?) from the set of Three Lights' second live action, the auburn-haired middle brother was soon surrounded by almost all of the intellectual women in the room while the less sophisticated of the female guests were trying to flirt with Yaten-san, whose great feminine beauty was enhanced by his opal-green cape matching the colour of his feline eyes and the rare smile on his usually gloomy face.

Seiya-kun, sporting his black Red Ninja suit sans the red cape like an invincible armour, which he had donned to protect himself from heartache, was now gliding through the throng of excited guests with his relaxed, amused smile, gazing at everyone and touching no one, lingering nowhere for longer than a few seconds. One of Usagi-san's old school friends, a diffident redheaded fairy in a terrible but expensive frilly dress, whom Hotaru didn't know personally, rushed after him and brushed against him on her way to the buffet in the adjoining room, and Hotaru could practically see the girl's pulse race in her veins when he turned to look at her.

Naturally, it didn't escape Hotaru's attention how the whole atmosphere instantaneously changed when Seiya-kun entered the scene—a few minutes later than the other two Lights because he had been assaulted by a group of fanatic fans when he stepped out of the limousine. She was so accustomed to (and so tired of!) the usual sharp intake of breath and the stolen glances, the rosy glow and the fluttering eyelashes. As always, there were also a few (very few!) women who instantly hated him as well—who treated him as if he represented the greatest danger to humankind without admitting that he only posed a danger to their sleep and their peace of mind. Hotaru, who had never experienced adolescence and would probably never get to experience it in her life, was glad that she could appreciate his vibrant, glaring attractiveness—one of the beautiful things which made life bearable—without getting distracted by what the petite blue-haired naiad next to her (Ami-chan should really wear sapphire earrings and necklaces more often because they brought out her blue eyes so beautifully!) would label "a very unusual, very troublesome sex appeal."

It wasn't sex, Hotaru thought, or at least not what people usually meant by "sex" when they thought of it. But perhaps Michiru-mama would tell her that it was nonsense to ponder the meaning of words. Music and art and love made sense whereas words were usually redundant, for body and mind were inextricably connected—and words, which tended to suggest a dichotomy where a dichotomy didn't even exist, only created unnecessary trouble.

Letting her gaze travel past the gilt paper masks to the no longer masked royal couple, Hotaru noticed that the bride—a silver-haired, serene queen in a breathtaking cloud of white lace and pink roses and silver-threaded satin—couldn't take her eyes off the cape-less ninja, who was now flirting with Rei-san, her best friend, who was dressed up as Artemis or Diana, the virgin goddess of hunting. The wedding reception would be just as wonderful as the ending sunset—Hotaru, who was trying to be more poetic these days, thought—if the bride weren't still infatuated with another man.

x.

Kudo Shinichi, the modern Sherlock Holmes of the East, was still missing, the online article said. Some fans speculated that he had disappeared to fight an evil organization in secret and that he was going to return soon. Others feared that he might have been murdered and his corpse had been disposed of, which was why his mansion was haunted. There was also an interesting site which claimed that he had been abducted by aliens: black-clad invaders that called themselves Death Busters and turned humans into giant black monsters…

"What are we going to do about Sayama-san?" Michiru-mama asked Haruka-papa in a hushed voice, and Hotaru, who could sense her mother's anxiety, silently put her phone away to watch the couple.

They were standing at the fountain in the middle of the rose garden, under one of the large weeping willows which had survived the fire at Infinity and which Michiru-mama had bought and moved to her estate for purely sentimental reasons. Michiru-mama was leaning her head against Haruka-papa's shoulder, and Haruka-papa was stroking Michiru-mama's hair, which looked like ocean waves during a storm as they were flying in the rising wind. Whenever they were in a romantic mood, they would blend out the existence of their daughter completely, and Hotaru liked being invisible and near them in these moments—for they were both lovely but larger than life and their undivided attention and care often exhausted her.

"Nothing!" Haruka-papa sighed in frustration. "What do you expect me to do, Michiru? Abducting and threatening the justice minister and forcing him to pardon her? We can't do anything if she doesn't even try a final appeal. You know that bribing him is impossible!"

The justice minister was, unfortunately, the most upright politician in Japan, who had managed to pass on his sense of justice to his only daughter before he abandoned her after her mother's death. He loved his daughter but knew that he wouldn't ever have time for her, he had told Rei-san's grandfather. And Hotaru wondered whether she was immensely lucky to have an insane scientist as her father, who loved her so much and was so attached to her that he had to be forced to give her away because he would rather have raised her in an asylum.

In contrast to Rei-san and her father, Hotaru's father and Hotaru still met each other once a month and spent hours together doing Feldenkrais, anatomical studies, or even analyzing APTX4869. Even though he was a lunatic, Hotaru loved his hysterical laughter and his wacky sense of humour and his senseless ramblings. There were many types of lunatics who depressed Hotaru, but her father belonged to the sort of mad man who brightened her day because he didn't only think out of the box but couldn't even see the confinement of the box.

It didn't surprise Hotaru that Seiya-kun and her father got along well.

"I wonder whether we should ask Rei-chan for help," Michiru-mama murmured.

Haruka-papa abruptly let go of Michiru-mama's hair and turned away, towards the water, in which the moonlight and the fast moving purple and indigo clouds were reflected.

"I'm not going to do _that_ to her!" she grimly said. "We don't even know whether they're still on speaking terms. And I don't believe she could make him reconsider his decision even if she tried to."

Times and manners were getting rougher—and whenever people were insecure and unhappy and dissatisfied, vigilantism would rise, Seiya-kun once told Hotaru-chan when she asked him why he didn't join them. But since they had seen that fighting usually destroyed more than it saved, Three Lights would keep out of trouble as long as they weren't forced to protect themselves and rather sing and dance their way through life instead.

"Can we really sit back and do nothing?" Michiru-mama tentatively placed her hand on Haruka-papa's neck. She couldn't even imagine what Maeda-san was going through. It would be less of a torture if they just executed his fiancée right now instead of letting him wait.

In the distance, Hotaru could see Seiya-kun step out onto the balcony, followed by a blonde siren in a silver-grey fishtail dress, who was holding a pen and was probably asking him for his phone number or for an autograph. Since Hotaru couldn't see his face, she tried to conjure up the irritated expression she had only glimpsed once when he tried to slip out of the room unobserved but was caught by another admirer, who used his temporary exhaustion to grab his arm.

When he moved his head and Hotaru saw the wide smile on his lips, she had to admit that she was wrong. He had resolved to put on his happy, cheery face for the grand evening, and he was going to keep this up even if it killed him.

"Masquerade, seething shadows, breathing lies," Hotaru sang in her head. "Masquerade, you can fool any friend who ever knew you…"

"If I were Sayama…" Haruka-papa slowly said, whereupon Michiru-mama embraced her from behind and whispered that she didn't want to imagine it.

If Haruka-papa were faced with the same situation, she wouldn't be sentenced to death—Hotaru thought—because Haruka-papa was smart enough (and would love Michiru-mama enough!) to feign remorse. Sayama Akiko deserved her execution since she fully embraced it when she declared that the murder she committed was justified and that she would repeat it at any time. Perhaps the justice minister, who usually didn't pass death sentences, would have liked to pardon her if she had left him a choice. Hotaru pitied Sayama-san—but she didn't pity Sayama-san because the poor woman was going to be executed some day but because her dignity and her integrity had meant more to Sayama-san than her fiancé did although she must have known that he would be burning in hell.

They had dropped in on Maeda-san on the way from their seaside house to Michiru-mama's estate, as Haruka-papa would have liked to bring him to the wedding to introduce him to Mamoru-san, whose scholarly mind was interested in everything and, as a matter of course, was interested in martial arts as well. But no sooner had they entered Maeda-san's apartment than Haruka-papa told Michiru-mama and Hotaru to leave and wait with Setsuna-mama in the car so that she could be alone with Maeda-san for a few minutes. The apartment was cleaner than Hotaru had expected although it was the emptiest apartment Hotaru had ever seen. The former karate champion, who was now only skin and bones, had wrecked and then thrown away almost all of his possessions and the furniture his fiancée had bought—the chairs, the table, even the double bed—and only kept a few cupboards, Haruka-papa told them afterwards. He had smashed and tossed all the decorations as well: all the vases she had collected, all the pictures she had taken. The phone, his mattress, the blinds, and the curtains were the only "decorations" he had kept. Haruka-papa had opened the curtains to let the light in, but he had drawn them again when Haruka-papa left.

"I wonder why the idiot doesn't simply take some of the thousands of girls who are in love with him for a few one-night stands," Haruka-papa, who had just discovered Seiya-kun on the balcony as well, rolled her eyes. "It would make them happy and ease his pain until he gets over her."

"He is afraid of them because they're all parasites who feed on him," Hotaru thought aloud. "It I were him, I wouldn't let any of them near me either."

Haruka-papa started, stared down at Hotaru in astonishment, then raised a brow and chuckled. Haruka-papa looked cute when she chuckled… young and carefree and almost like Seiya-kun.

"You sound like an old hag, princess!" Haruka-papa shook her head and turned her attention to Seiya-kun, who was gazing back at her (the two of them had been suffering from this weird platonic love-hate-tension for years) while Michiru-mama resolved to give Hotaru less weighty adult's literature and more shoujo manga to read.

Hotaru gazed down at her reflection in the water of the fountain and took time to appreciate the ethereal beauty the moonlight and the water had bestowed on her. A frail, sylph-like porcelain doll in a mauve Gothic Lolita dress, with deep black hair framing a pretty heart-shaped face… In the glaring light of day, Hotaru—pale and abnormally thin—looked like the very image of death.

In fact, she had already died back then in the fire of Infinity (this sounded so much better than it was—which only proved that words often distorted the truth). It had taken her father ten pills of the modified APTX4869 to restore her bodily functions and a few operations to restore her flawless face, but the ugly scars on her body, the nightmares, her fear of fire, and her everlasting childhood remained.

On the balcony, in the moonlit twilight, Seiya-kun looked like the paragon of life despite his black clothes, and Hotaru knew that he looked exactly just as gorgeous in daylight and on stage as he looked at twilight and dawn. The scientist in Hotaru admired the ideal alignment and proportions of his muscles and bones, which she had only seen in Haruka-papa despite having met many tactile prodigies at Infinity, while the artist in her was momentarily distracted by his profile, which she would never dare to draw for fear that Michiru-mama could find her sketches.

All princesses were supposed to be protected and loved in a platonic, spiritual way, Taiki-san once told her when she asked Three Lights about their feelings for Kakyuu. But Seiya-kun said that he loved Kakyuu and "Odango" because they were both resilient and tough, and because they weren't afraid to be themselves even when it meant to be wrong.

"I won't be a princess forever!" Hotaru flashed Haruka-papa a carefree smile, the kind of smile which her parents and her parents' friends loved to see and which Hotaru had perfected by watching Seiya-kun, who was a master of disguise and who only dropped his happy mask near Haruka-papa and Hotaru, who was invisible to him just as to anyone else whenever she didn't wish to be seen. "I'd rather be like Kudo Shinichi when I grow up." Since Hotaru loved mystery novels in general and Sherlock Holmes in particular and knew how it was to be trapped in a child's body, she could identify with Edogawa Conan.

Michiru-mama's frown, which had barely grazed her brows, deepened. Kudo Shinichi or Edogawa Conan, whom they had once hoped to become a valuable ally against the seven crows and _that person_ , had been dead to them ever since the day The Sleeping Kogoro convicted Sayama-san and rejected their methods and their ideals. Vigilantes and law-abiding detectives could never join forces even when they had the same enemy, as they fought on different sides and employed different methods and the detectives wouldn't ever hesitate to jail the vigilantes even if it meant to give them the death penalty, Haruka-papa taught Hotaru, who had become a fan of the modern Sherlock of the East when she learned that he had been shrunk as well.

 _Kudo can't be called the modern Sherlock Holmes,_ Haruka-papa had claimed, _because Sherlock Holmes only served justice and spared vigilantes whenever the murders were justified whereas Kudo Shinichi only serves the present judicial system!_

 _One day, when Pandora's Box is opened, we will have to fight them all_ —Setsuna-mama had gravely predicted— _which is why you can admire Three Lights but shouldn't like them too much_. _The same goes for Kudo Shinichi and his friends, who will put us into the same category as the members of the Organization and drag us to court—which we can't allow to happen because we would all be eliminated in prison. If the worst comes to the worst, we may even have to take Kudo out before he can hurt us._

 _Shiho-san, too?_ Hotaru-chan, who liked Miyano Shiho because Sherry was one of the few "normal" people among the stuck-up prodigies at Infinity, asked.

_She is an exception because we need her on our side—but we must be very careful in dealing with her because she is in love with Kudo._

_And what about Three Lights?_ Hotaru—who didn't even dare to blink lest she missed a fleeting display of emotion on her mother's calm, enigmatic face—had asked.

 _They will be our enemies some day, hime-chan,_ Setsuna-mama had gently replied. _That's the truth even though Usagi and her friends don't want to face it. When the Organization goes down, Three Lights will do anything to protect their parents even if it means to fight us and the secret services and the police. You can't choose your parents—and vagabonds and free spirits like Three Lights are only loyal to their own feelings and the people they love… When the secret services bring down the Organization, the situation will become very difficult for all of us._

Haruka-papa, who looked taken aback by Hotaru's declaration of becoming a female version of Kudo Shinichi, reached out a cool hand to stroke Hotaru's cheek. Her windswept blonde hair threw soft shadows on her brows whenever the wind blew it into her face, and Hotaru was startled by the vast changes which her looks underwent depending on the direction of the wind.

"You shouldn't ever try to be a copy of another person," she solemnly said. "You'll never achieve anything with that attitude! You should always aim much higher than that and stay true to your own personality!"

But what does staying true to yourself mean, Hotaru wondered. So many people who tried to be originals were only boring while Seiya-kun, who parodied all clichés and copied everyone and everything, was the most interesting man Hotaru had ever seen.

Inside, the music suddenly played "Charade"—which must be Usagi-san's well-meant, misguided attempt to revive the friendship between her and Haruka-papa, which had suffered a severe blow after _the scandal_. Poor silly Usagi-san wasn't very smart despite her big heart, Hotaru realized, wondering why she had never noticed Usagi-san's lack of intelligence before. Michiru-mama was holding Haruka-papa in a tight embrace now while Haruka-papa silently cried. This couldn't be only naiveté… or wasn't it Usagi-san but Mamoru-san, who did this intentionally to take revenge on Haruka-papa for hurting his wife?

x.

_You draw, you paint, you play the violin, you excel at everything! It's no wonder that you're so great, considering the rich, successful, prodigiously intelligent, caring adoptive parents you have. You're only being homeschooled because your nervous condition doesn't allow you to socialize with other children, whom you fear because you're overly sensitive. You're a real prodigy, Hotaru-chan, and you're so extremely pretty. Even your giant scars have such a pretty, pretty shape. You shouldn't be unhappy just because your scars cover your whole body and because, whenever you grow, they hurt. The pain is only in your mind and you should simply ignore it because you won't ever be able to do anything against it…_

That's what Hotaru usually heard from strangers and what she usually expected to hear from friends as well. Some of them even meant exactly what they said, and Hotaru was grateful to know those few people, who adored and pitied her. She almost expected to hear the same speeches from Three Lights when they were sitting on the beach in summer and she, tired of hiding her scars, stubbornly displayed them for everyone to see.

Taiki-san and Yaten-san didn't comment on her scars but also didn't try to ignore them, throwing them curious glances before they lost interest. They simply accepted Hotaru's body as it was, and Hotaru wondered whether growing up in the Organization could really be as bad as everybody tried to make it sound because she couldn't believe that an evil, twisted Organization could raise people like them. Seiya-kun, the cheeky lead singer who could be quite lovely if he wanted to but could seldom hold back a rude remark, would surely make fun of her or pity her as Usagi-san did, Hotaru thought. However, his reaction blew her away, for he was cool enough to tell her that her scars were easily the ugliest things he had ever seen.

_"Ugly" isn't even the right adjective. They're actually so scary that they're going to give me nightmares from now on!_

For a few seconds, he stared at them in horror and silent admiration. And Hotaru realized that to him, her scars were proof of the immense hardship she had gone through and her courage when—despite the pain which never ended—she still continued to smile and work.

 _If we weren't on a beach, I'd say it's vain and ostentatious to show off your war injuries!_ he had smirked and given her "war injuries" another admiring glance before he went off to ignore her like he always did. And when Hotaru accidentally caught the bouquet, which Usagi-san tried to throw at Haruka-papa when the wedding reception ended, Hotaru suddenly knew that his uncanny ability to blend rudeness with kindness was the main reason why she loved him.

"I love you. I've been in love with you for over three years." Although Hotaru's hormones might never have fluctuated, her mind was mature enough to know that this wasn't only a fleeting puppy love. She also knew well that Seiya-kun wasn't in love with her yet—even in her most deluded moments, she didn't believe that he had ever considered her a possible love interest—but perhaps he was going to reciprocate when he learned how sincere and strong her feelings for him were. After all, a marriage built on affection and emotional intimacy was, undeniably, stronger than a marriage built on passion and romance. "Since Usagi-san is now married but I'm still free… will you marry me? I'm sure that we can make this work."

They were standing at the fountain under the starry night, and she was holding on to the bouquet of intertwined red and white roses—the symbol of the perfect unity between passion and purity in a love marriage—as if it was a lucky charm which would help her grow until she was eighteen and he could have a proper relationship with her.

For a while, he stared down at her in speechless astonishment, and she could tell that he was trying to see past her childlike facade to calculate her real age, which he couldn't guess, as he and she—star-crossed lovers separated by fate, or polar opposites kept apart by space and time?—never met during his few visits at Infinity.

"This is just a silly phase—don't take it too seriously!" Haruka-papa, who was striding towards them, intervened. "Come on, princess, it's late! We're going home now because I have to put you to bed!" Her eyes, which were shooting daggers and rapiers and swords at Seiya-kun, spelled out what she didn't need to say because both of them could hear her roaring in their heads: "I'm going to give you an untimely, grisly death if you dare to hurt my little kitten!"

"I'm _not_ a princess," Hotaru protested. "I told you I'm going to be the female Kudo Shinichi!"

"Oh God! Not this again!" Haruka-papa groaned. "This must be the teenage phase I've always dreaded!" Hotaru, who didn't expect this exclamation, was pleasantly surprised, as Haruka-papa usually treated her like a real child.

Seiya-kun laughed at Haruka-papa's outburst, and Hotaru could feel vividly that adolescence, even when it had never shown on her body, definitely affected her mind when he reached down and scooped her up for a warm, comforting hug.

"I love you, too!" He beamed at her as he tenderly placed her on the rim of the fountain, leaving his hands on her waist for a moment to help her find her balance. He smelled just like the last warm autumn night before the scent of sweet osmanthus faded from the air, Hotaru hazily thought, wondering whether she should kiss him first. She had almost leaned in and tilted her head when he turned to throw a wondering glance at Haruka-papa, who only shrugged at him.

"But since love will always change and I won't ever let myself be tied down by a rash promise," Seiya-kun lightly added, "you'll have to ask me again in ten to fifteen years."

Ah, the eternal wanderer, the eternal vagabond! He would forever be breaking hearts and never let a woman tie him down for long, just as Haruka-papa had told her. Although she knew that such an attitude wasn't conducive to enduring love, Hotaru was motivated enough to take on the challenge. She would be like Michiru-mama, who knew how to chain Haruka-papa to her with unconditional love and small everyday rituals, a concoction of healthy jealousy and implicit trust, and the right balance between fulfillment and withdrawal.

"I'm going to ask you again in ten years," she agreed, sealing the promise with a shy, fleeting kiss on his cheek—almost missing the spot and kissing his eye in her excitement. He didn't draw away as she had feared but smiled and affectionally rubbed her back in response. It was slightly disappointing because she had hoped to receive a kiss or at least a peck, but perhaps this was his way of showing that he wanted to behave like a gentleman towards her, and it was all she could ask for at the moment.

"Great!" Haruka-papa sighed in relief. "And now please do tell her that she should embrace individuality instead of imitating a shrunk detective!" Haruka-papa, who took Hotaru's spiritual education almost as seriously as Michiru-mama and Setsuna-mama her artistic and formal education, never failed to take advantage of a favourable situation.

"Why do you want to become Kudo Shinichi if you can become Sherlock Holmes instead?" Seiya-kun, who liked to disobey Haruka-papa, suggested. "If you choose a real person as your role model, they will disappoint you some day because humans always make mistakes. It's best to avoid that sort of heartbreak."

x.

Over two years later, the heartbreak happened: Kudo Shinichi forgot Miyano Shiho on the ship… and all the evils of humanity flew out of Pandora's Box, sweeping away Hotaru's great expectations and high hopes…

"Young Moriarty!" she longingly called out to Seiya-kun, who had just arrived at their beach and was now climbing out of the motorboat. He grabbed his bag, cocked his head to smirk at her through the battered pair of black sunglasses he already wore when he was a teen idol, and took them off in a smooth movement when she pulled him down to hug him. He had grown another inch and was absolutely irresistible even in his worn black leather jacket and his faded blue jeans, and when he pulled away and their eyes met, her eighteen-year-old mind regretted that, even according to Japan's liberal law of consent, her body was at least six years too young to be kissed and caressed by him.

"How's life?" he casually inquired. "I heard you've become a passionate painter in the meantime, even moved on to oil paints after finishing off all the pastels on Michiru-sama's shelves. Hence it surprised me that I haven't seen any oil painting of yours in your room."

"I've left them in Michiru-mama's atelier in Venice," she dismissively said. "They're still wet and too ugly to be displayed anywhere. But I'm doing my best to improve." She looked him up and down with a curious smile. "But what about you? How did you manage to stay alive?" He didn't even have a scratch, and she wondered whether he had simply charmed the wayward third-generation Chicago codename members into following him.

"Because all the codename members who wanted to have my head have conveniently killed each other off and the rest like me too much to shoot me." He shrugged. "Chicago was dirty and cold but I liked the snow."

It was obvious that he didn't want to tell her what really happened, so she contented herself with admiring his gestures and movements as he took off his jacket in the entry and walked to the sink to wash his hands. "Where are your parents? Don't tell me they've all been poisoned by the talented chemist in the meantime." He was as irreverent and sarcastic as ever, treating her as a normal girl and not an invalid or a little princess. And Hotaru smiled at the thought that he was going to stay here for three days before they all flew to Venice together.

"Michiru-mama and Haruka-papa have gone shopping because you were supposed to arrive tonight and not this afternoon," (read: " _I'm sure they're hiding out to have a romantic time with each other in the Ferrari so that they can behave in front of their guests,"_ ) "and Setsuna-mama is working on some new formula." Deciding that it would be lame to ask him why he had taken an earlier plane to rush here while he usually preferred arriving fashionably late to appearing too early, Hotaru broke the news about the new sleeping arrangements: "You'll have to sleep on the sofa in the living room or on a futon in the music room this time because Shiho-san has moved into Setsuna-mama's room after you left and Setsuna-mama is now staying in the guest room. We don't have any free bedroom left." Her bedroom was too small for two people—she mentally added—and Haruka-papa would roast him alive before he could even finish asking her for permission.

Seiya-kun paused and gazed into the distance with an unreadable expression before he continued to wash his face and his neck. Hotaru handed him a towel when he was done, and he seemed slightly surprised by her gesture although he accepted the towel with a cheerful "Thanks".

"Since I'd prefer sleeping in a bed to sleeping on the couch, I'll simply ask your pretty guest to share a room with me," he winked at her as he dried his face and his neck. And Hotaru chuckled, wondering whether he was trying to make her jealous like Haruka-papa often did to Michiru-mama. If her guess was right, this would be a very welcome change to their dynamic! Until now, he had never treated her as his future fiancée because to him, she had always been and would always be a kid.

In a way, it was her own fault, she admitted, for she played the part of the endearing elementary school child too well. They were both born actors who treated life as if it were a vast stage, trapped in a never-ending, lonely charade which neither of them was even trying to escape…

"You can move in right away if you help me change the sheets," Shiho-san, who had just appeared at the staircase to the second floor, said in a low, husky voice before she flashed him a mysterious, almost seductive smile, which Hotaru, until now, had never seen on her face. She was only wearing a simple indigo cashmere dress, which Michiru-mama had bought her after she took the antidote, but the colour and the cut suited her extremely well. "You must be tired after the long flight. What about a nap before dinner?" She turned away before he could reply and obviously expected him to accept the outrageous invitation, judging from the confident, radiant smile in her eyes.

There it was: the glow. Even the fluttering eyelashes, the longing glances, the sharp intake of breath, the racing pulse… It wouldn't give Hotaru any reason for anxiety at all if it wasn't only the annoying female admirer but also Seiya-kun who displayed all these signs, which Hotaru had only seen on him when he met up with "Odango".

"Any important news I need to know before my nap?" Seiya-kun asked Hotaru with a faraway expression after tearing his eyes away from Shiho-san, who had just disappeared into Setsuna-mama's bedroom; and Hotaru—who had never expected her ever-so-enthusiastic, ever-so-energetic Seiya-kun to take a nap, much less sleep in a room which belonged to a _female_ stranger he only knew for a few days (Seiya-kun was terrified of women after being drugged by a particularly evil admirer, who would have misused the situation to do unmentionable things to him if Yaten-san had not intervened!)—wondered _what the deuce_ (to quote Sherlock Holmes) she had just witnessed.

"Well, I've watched and re-watched your first live action, the one in which you played Godfrey Norton and Moriarty… Setsuna-mama said you shouldn't play the villain because you make the bad guy look cool. She also said you're really badass in real life as well but that's beside the point… Oh, and I'm positive I'm over Kudo Shinichi now after he left Shiho-san on the ship. That… disappointed me."

"So?" he looked at her expectantly as he took his bag, and Hotaru breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed that he was still paying her close attention when he talked to her despite his… flirt?… with their guest. She was going to surpass Kudo Shinichi, she declared. Instead of becoming a female version of Kudo-san, she would become a modern Sherlock Holmes—someone who wouldn't ever mind breaking the law!

"Well then," he gave the top of her head a light pat before he decisively made for the stairs. "I hope you're going to like my presents, Sherlock of the twenty-first century!"

"I know _you_ won't ever disappoint me," Hotaru murmured and silently followed him with a smile although a premonition of disaster had begun to blur her vision and she had to blink away the tears burning in her eyes, "Moriarty…"

x.

 


	36. Part Four: The bathroom...

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**The bathroom…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

The bathroom didn't contain anything of interest to Shinichi, and he has only learned that Ai shaves her legs like most women do. She also has lavender-coloured nail polish (which she probably uses on her toenails in summer since she has left her fingernails perfectly natural), jasmine-scented body lotion, and a pair of tweezers, which he didn't expect her to have. As he feared, she doesn't even have her own shampoo or shower gel, and Seiya and she are sharing a homemade liquid soap in a large bottle, which smells heavily of fragrant osmanthus and a complex mixture of orange blossoms, vanilla, roses, a variety of musks, and other indistinguishable, bittersweet scents…

Naturally, Shinichi didn't expect to find anything unusual. He gives Seiya enough credit to expect him to get rid of all incriminating evidence before inviting a famous detective into his apartment. But sometimes, the absence of an object which should be there is almost as interesting as the existence of damning evidence. And until now, Shinichi hasn't seen any trace of APAH.

Since both Seiya and Ai are now waiting for him on the roof terrace, Shinichi can inspect the living room and the kitchen without fearing disturbance from them. After making sure that he has searched every nook and cranny of the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room (he has even looked into the piano and quickly leafed through the few books and sheet music on the bookshelf), Shinichi returns to the corridor to search the pockets of their jackets. As Ai's—and Seiya's—guest, Shinichi is abusing their hospitality and friendship. As a detective and Hattori's friend, however, Shinichi feels an obligation to solve this case even though he is not authorized to investigate it. And in this regard, Seiya and Ai are just uncooperative witnesses (or in Seiya's case: _the_ number-one suspect), who need to be forced to cooperate!

Paper tissues, lip balm, pen, post its, a pocket calendar—Ai has always been minimalistic; and Shinichi can remember her scolding the Professor for ruining his pockets by stuffing them with junk food and candies and tools he was unlikely to need. While Ai, on the whole, succeeded in controlling the Professor when they lived together, she obviously fails to manage her boyfriend: Seiya keeps a multifunction pocket knife, a lighter, dancer's tapes, two pocket editions of scores (one of _The Phantom of the Opera_ and one of Mozart's _Don Giovanni_ , a notebook, a music notebook, two pens, a pencil, an eraser, four different sets of make-up, four small packets of paper tissues, two scarves, two pairs of sunglasses, a few pairs of earrings, a fake moustache, two caps, and even two wigs in the deep pockets of his leather jacket.

Leafing through Seiya's new notebook (which must be a present from Ai, as she has drawn his initials on the first page just as she did with the notebook she gave Shinichi on his nineteenth birthday), Shinichi discovers to his anger and astonishment that Seiya has taken notes of the La Fenice case (not from his own point of view but from Shinichi's!), collecting all the facts Shinichi has learned during the interrogations in the backstage café. The singer doesn't only have creepily good ears and an excellent memory for dialogues—he also writes with fountain pen and black ink. Since Seiya has translated all the dialogues into Japanese and doesn't use the Roman alphabet in his notebook, Shinichi can't compare his handwriting to "M's", but he routinely takes a few photos of the first pages of Seiya's notebook for further inspection.

There is only the bedroom left… If Shinichi wants to search it, he has to hurry lest Ai grows impatient and sends Seiya to fetch him. For a moment, Shinichi hesitates—not because he is horrified by his actions (this wouldn't be the first time that he has illegally searched the apartment of a suspect) but because he is afraid of the things he may discover. If they're really a couple, he doesn't need to know further intimate details of their relationship. But the remembrance of singer's amused smile when he informed Shinichi that the case was closed eventually spurs Shinichi into action.

This may be his only chance of searching this apartment, and he is certainly not going to lose just because of his misplaced prudery and irrational fears! Bracing himself for the worst, Shinichi decisively rips open the door to the bedroom and marches to the bedside table to study the contents of the drawers. There is no hint of APAH and—to Shinichi's great relief—no suggestion of any contraception either. Instead, he finds paper tissues and training equipment (small balls and loop bands, which ballet dancers use to improve their balance and their stretches), two full sketchbooks, a pencil, and lightfast India ink pens in twenty colours. Her sketchy doodles (she seems to do one every other day) can't be called "drawings" in the artistic sense, and Shinichi can't even tell whether they're only the products of her fantasy or actual plans—but he has to smile when he realizes that they all illustrate extremely radical ways of punishing "SK", who is only recognizable by his blue eyes or black sunglasses, his smiling mouth, and his long black ponytail.

Apart from the shared bed, there is absolutely nothing which suggests that they're a real couple, Shinichi muses, studying the contents of Ai's wardrobe and drawers with interest. She has two compartments of socks and stockings (thick winter socks, thin but soft summer socks, transparent and semi-transparent stockings and tights in nude and black) but only one small compartment for bras and panties. She has exactly eight slips if one counts the one she must be wearing and adds it to the three on the clothes rack on the balcony and the four in her underwear drawer (the laundry basket in the bathroom is empty). One slip for each day of the week plus a spare one—she probably washes them by hand every day, just like her four bras. She is still ridiculously neat and clean, just as Shinichi has expected from Haibara Ai! What surprises him is the fact that Ai doesn't wear matching colours, as he'd have imagined her to be fastidious and perfectionist enough to value such a details. On the contrary, she seems to enjoy having a motley assortment of colours when it comes to slips while she only owns pink lace bras. There are pastel colours in shades of pink and lavender but also bold indigo and scarlet and the classic white and nude and black. She also has a weakness for soft, fluffy, and smooth fabrics, and Shinichi is momentarily distracted by the fantasy of how her skin would feel beneath them before he pushes everything into place and resumes his search for APAH.

Knowing that he would suffer terrible consequences if Ai ever found out that he has been rummaging through her underwear drawer, Shinichi takes care to keep all her clothes in the exact order in which he has found them. In the compartment between the ones containing her underwear and her socks, Shinichi finds Ai's few pieces of jewellery: the necklace he has given her (she still has the pendant!) and the love bracelet she wore last night—complete in two pieces, with a tiny screwdriver, which Shinichi could simply pocket in retaliation for this idiotic game of hide and seek she is still playing with him. Suppressing the urge to steal the screwdriver, Shinichi concedes that encountering Seiya has brought out all his hidden bad traits. Whenever he looks at the guy, he has the irrational feeling of facing his nemesis, the Moriarty to his Holmes. And the detail that the singer (why oh why did she have to fall in love with a _singer_ out of all people?) has the same initials as him only adds insult to injury…

The mere thought of Seiya Kou successfully shuts down the sensible side of Shinichi's brain, whereupon Shinichi gleefully slips the little platinum screwdriver into his jeans pocket. He is going to return it to Ai some day—after she has come to her senses and told him the truth about Pandora's Box and the reason why she went away.

Beneath the necklace and the bracelet lies a pink paper box, in which Ai keeps handwritten cards and notes—all of which she has received from her "employer", as Shinichi can deduce from the slanted Hiragana and Katakana and almost unreadable Kanji, which resemble the scribbles in Seiya's notebook. This time Shinichi refrains from reading all the notes and only studies the handwriting without trying to comprehend the contents. After all, he is trying to find APTX and APAH and doesn't have the time to go through the random notes in which Seiya only reminded Ai to eat breakfast or told her that he was going to the grocery store—if the first notes are a representative sample of the whole collection. After a few seconds of leafing through them, Shinichi can tell that they're all random and not at all romantic in the conventional sense of the word although he has to admit that they often sound affectionate in a pragmatic or cocky way ("Don't skip breakfast again!" "If you don't get up in time for breakfast, I'll eat up your slice of cake!" "I'll be gone until next Wednesday. Are you going to miss me?")… Shinichi can tell with certainty that, if he had written these messages, Ai would have tossed them after reading them. She is completely besotted with her singer, which is most disturbing, as Shinichi can't think of a way to solve this case without wrecking her rose-coloured world.

In contrast to Ai, Seiya seems to have kept all the clothes he has bought in the last ten years (and tossed all of Ai's letters, if she has written him any!), and Shinichi suspects that the passionate actor disguises himself almost every time he goes out just for fun, as he doesn't limit his wardrobe to a few high quality pieces but owns clothes of all qualities and styles. Just like Ai, Seiya has kept his drawers and wardrobe impressively clean and neat—probably either out of fear of his (fake?) girlfriend's punishments or in order to please her. Buried under Seiya's pile of socks is a small red jewellery box (gold-embossed with Cartier's name and decorative curved outline), which is hiding a pair of platinum rings—the one Shinichi saw on Seiya's finger at La Fenice yesterday (the singer isn't wearing any piece of jewellery today) and another, smaller one, which would fit Ai's finger, in Shinichi's estimation. To all appearances, Seiya has really offered marriage at least once and she has turned down his proposal, just as Seiya said. The existence of the second ring drastically reduces the probability that their relationship is only a charade but doesn't completely eliminate it. After all, Seiya could have proposed to her just because he was in love with her while she turned it down because, despite her infatuation with the singer, she could see that a promiscuous actor like Seiya Kou was no husband material…

Frustrated by his inability to focus, Shinichi turns his attention to the battered accordion case, which is lying forlornly between the bed and the window. There is absolutely nothing in the accordion case but an old accordion and a small piece of paper from the Gritti Palace with "Lucia's" phone number, which has been written in an unmistakably feminine handwriting. "Lucia" must be a woman with whom Seiya had a flirt (and a rendezvous?) at the Gritti not long ago, being the inveterate playboy he is! If Seiya and Ai are really a couple, Ai will be very interested in Lucia's existence.

Seiya could also have gone to the Gritti this morning to meet up with Chiba Mamoru, in which case he must have met Hakuba as well. In any case, Shinichi prefers hearing a report of the meeting from the reliable, detail-obsessed Hakuba to squeezing every little detail out of the puzzling singer while making an effort to separate fiction from truth.

Since Shinichi has convinced himself that Ai no longer has APAH at home—which is peculiar since he'd have expected her to prepare enough to last her for a whole month—he grabs Hattori's lucky charm from the coffee table and hurries upstairs to join Ai and Seiya on the roof terrace. Slipping into his jacket with the grim air of a kamikaze pilot before his last flight, Shinichi lets his gaze roam his surroundings once more to check whether he has overlooked anything important until it lands on the morning paper on the magazine rack next to the glass door. The screaming headline "Has our Young Godfrey Norton finally found his Irene?" jumps at him the moment he allows himself to read it. On second glance, it wasn't the headline which caught his attention but the scribbles in the margin next to it. " _I'm_ the singer and actor," the familiar handwriting in black ink says in English. "It's not you but _me_ , who is Irene."

x.

 


	37. Part Four: Venice is one...

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**Venice is one…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Venice is one of the cities which should be admired from above: far away from the maddening hordes of tourists and the souvenir stalls filled with worthless, tasteless junk; perched on a quiet roof which allows one to take in the panorama of the sky and the sea and the picturesque composition of pink and terra cotta buildings, towers, and palaces, winding streets and randomly scattered canals and bridges—without being disturbed by the noises of the city. But then again, most things only look good from a certain distance; and even the most beautiful things betray their hideous flaws under a magnifying glass although the flaws, too, may reveal their beautiful, intricate patterns when you zoom in.

The width of the square wooden table on Seiya Kou's roof terrace is not short enough a distance to give away any of the flaws on Ai's face, and Shinichi notices once again that even her looks are intriguingly ambivalent. While she carries herself with the ease of a confident woman who is content with her life and who knows exactly what she wants, she still has the pale complexion, drawn face, and dark-ringed eyes of someone who can't properly take care of herself and who works much too hard and too long. Sonoko did tell him that Ai is "the chief cook and bottle washer" in Kaioh Michiru's academy—but Shinichi doubts that a pile of paperwork and the intermediate ballet classes can exhaust a former Black Organization head scientist like Ai to such an extent. Seiya's notes in which he reminds Ai of eating breakfast also come to mind. It seems that Ai, if left to own her devices, will regularly skip meals and work until dawn before she collapses into bed—a habit she cultivated while working on the antidote for Shinichi, according to the Professor.

After a short inquiry about their stalker, whom neither of them want to talk about ("She is just one of Seiya's fanatic fans, who send him love letters and roses and besiege the academy!"), Shinichi openly asks Ai what her tasks as Tenoh Haruka's secretary were: "Sonoko said that you didn't only work for Kaioh but for Tenoh as well, but I can't imagine why Tenoh needed a secretary. What exactly did you do for her?"

Ai sighs in exasperation, takes another sip of her orange juice, and leans back into the chair to give him a resigned smile.

"You can tell Suzuki-san that her spying skills are totally wasted in her art history studies!" she says at last. "Well, Tenoh-san hired me as her secretary right after I came to Venice and gave me random tasks like getting her an appointment at the hairdresser's or informing the artistic director of her quirks. But to be honest, I have the feeling that she only tried to find an excuse to pay me."

"Did she travel or meet up with anyone a few weeks before her death? Were you in charge of her calendar?"

"She didn't have a calendar," Ai shoots Seiya a dark look, "just like Seiya! They only memorized their appointments or jotted it down on a scrap of paper, which they threw away afterwards. And they both claimed that it didn't make sense to cling to the past."

She knows that he tosses all her messages—Shinichi deduces—and she is hurt because she is the type that likes to have a touchable chronicle of their love story while he belongs to the few people who only live in the present and seldom keep anything they aren't going to need in the future. Although this theory seems to make sense, it's just another wild speculation, Shinichi concedes, annoyed by the distraction. Giving her another irritated glance—she has just shifted in her chair but still keeps her feet tucked beneath Seiya's thighs, which are partly covered by her large wool blanket (in which she is cocooned like a queen bee in her cell and which she has artfully draped over Seiya's knees as if he were an extension of herself)—Shinichi resolves to ignore their relationship or charade from now on. He usually doesn't let other people's relationships distract him from solving a case, and he isn't going to change just because an old friend of his is fatally attracted to dangerous men.

"Do you know about Tenoh's mastectomy? When and where did she have it done?"

For a moment, Ai looks flustered by his question. Then she smiles and raises her hands in defeat while Seiya wordlessly refills her glass.

"I thought she has only bound her breasts," she admits. Despite being Tenoh Haruka's personal secretary, she knows surprisingly, suspiciously, little about Tenoh's travels and mastectomy. "Tenoh-san" was extremely impetuous and reckless in anything she did—Ai claims—and she wasn't very talkative when it came to her private life even though she liked to mess with other people's relationships. "It wouldn't surprise me if Kaioh-san turns out to be the only person who knows about Tenoh-san's mastectomy," she remarks, flashing him another of her playful, wicked smirks. "You shouldn't ask me about this. If Tenoh-san's breasts interest you so much, you should ask someone who knows them well."

x.

It's a quarter to four on Shinichi's watch, and they've just drunk up the orange juice in the jug and are about to finish off the last potato chips in the bowl. In a few minutes, Seiya will have to leave for La Fenice, and Shinichi can finally talk to Ai alone.

Shinichi only needs to bridge the waiting time with an innocuous question or anecdote, but before his muddled brain can come up with something more fitting, he can already hear himself saying, "Hakuba is in Venice because someone has shot his falcon."

Seiya darts Shinichi an alert look while Ai's eyes widen in surprise. Evidently, this isn't the right topic for a lighthearted gossip, but whenever Shinichi is in the middle of a case, he fails to remember how to make small talk.

In a few concise sentences, he informs them about Hakuba's phone call, going into detail about Tenoh Akira alias Jean Black, who has planned to watch _The Phantom of the Opera_ before flying to Tokyo on Monday. Ai visibly pales when she hears Tenoh Akira's name while Seiya only looks mildly interested. Perhaps it's unfair of Shinichi to mention Tenoh Akira's name in front of Seiya although Ai has made it clear to Shinichi that she is trying to hide the watercolour card with Akira's name from her boyfriend. But Seiya has seen the card, anyway, and it irks Shinichi that Ai still insists on continuing this futile travesty instead of giving him an unvarnished account of the past three years and eleven months.

After all, what can Seiya do to her in Shinichi's presence? The singer doesn't look violent at all (and even if he assaulted her, no doubt Shinichi would protect her.) Seiya may break up with her over some deep dark secret of hers which he can't handle—but one should never stay with a partner whom one can't be completely honest with. In fact, the faster Seiya learns about the things she is trying hide from him, the less time they're going to waste tiptoeing around each other like strangers during a blind date.

"And what does Hakuba-san plan to do with that bastard after catching him?" Ai asks in English and immediately winces, blushing crimson while Seiya quickly, comfortingly, brushes the side of his index finger across her cheek. She never slipped into English even when she was talking about her British mother while she was living with the Professor, and Shinichi can easily deduce from the guilty expression in her usually calm gaze—an abnormally strong reaction to the merest slip of the tongue—that Seiya must have grown up bilingual as well (this would also explain why Seiya wrote the one note in which he compared himself to Irene in English) and has (or more likely: had) a troubled relationship with his (late?) parents or foster parents.

"I don't know. Nothing too brutal, I suppose. Hakuba isn't the violent type. But since he really loves his falcon and is one of the most efficient detectives I know, I doubt that we'll have to wait for the outcome very long."

Meanwhile, Seiya has put the empty bowl, jug, and glasses into the basket and wiped the table with the last clean napkin. He doesn't sit down afterwards but lingers at the balustrade to gaze down at Shinichi and Ai with expectant eyes, and Shinichi inwardly sighs at the realization that the clingy singer wants Ai to come with him.

"It's time for me to go." The impertinent guy rubs her behind the ear in the same gesture in which other people tickle their cats. "You can stay home if you want, or you can come with me."

To Shinichi's tone-deaf ears, which can't be distracted by the melody of the sentence, Seiya's tiny emphasis on "come with me" is clearly audible. Although it wasn't only a rhetorical question, it's obvious that Seiya is asking her to watch him sing while leaving her the option to stay with her guest. The playboy is accustomed to manipulating her—and from the smile on Ai's face, Shinichi deduces that she knows it but likes the way he does it.

"Would you like to watch the musical with me from the backstage area?" Ai asks Shinichi, who would rather watch Seiya Kou drown slowly and painfully in the Canal instead. But since Shinichi can't possibly tell her the brutal truth, he contents himself with listing all the practical reasons why he absolutely can't watch the musical with her: He has to meet up with commissario Carrara, talk to Kaioh Michiru, and have dinner with Hakuba tonight—and he has to return to Sonoko's isle before midnight if he doesn't want to run the risk of being mistaken for a burglar by two sleepy karate champions, both of whom are itching for a fight after holidaying for too long.

"You can come with me, though," Shinichi suggests, surprised by the euphoria he feels at the prospect of working with her again instead of against her. He has missed their partnership much more than he thought. And the bewildered yet flattered look in her eyes indicate that he must be staring at her with the same expression which Genta wears when Genta is waiting for grilled quality unagi.

"No, thank you. I'd rather watch the musical than meet up with the misogynist of a commissario and our time-obsessed detective." She rises from the table and follows Seiya, who is carrying the basket and the blanket back inside. After opening the glass door for Seiya with a cryptic "wolves can't open doors with their paws," she stays at the magazine rack to chat with Shinichi. "It's the opening night, after all," she explains while they wait for Seiya to fetch her bag. "I can't miss the opening night, can I?"

If this is only an act, she is giving a perfect rendition of the devoted girlfriend who will always be waiting for her beloved in the wings even if it means to sacrifice solving a murder mystery with Japan's most famous detective for a second-rate musical which has already been played to death! As distracting as it is, this thought also triggers the memory of Kaioh Michiru's smile when she told him Tenoh and she had planned to watch _Charade_ —an old movie which was more important to Tenoh and her than the world premiere of Tenoh's _Opera_.

"Kaioh-san didn't watch Tenoh-san's 'opera' because she knew better than anyone else that it was only a practical joke! Tenoh-san churned out the notes in less than one week while practising the Schumann piano concerto. Any good movie would have been more worth watching than her song cycle!" Ai declares when Shinichi asks her. The memory of her warm head resting heavily against his arm as they were half lying, half sitting on the sofa, watching _Charade_ together before he took the antidote emerges from a dark corner of Shinichi's mind. He has an inkling of why she doesn't want to tell him about _Charade_. But since he isn't sure about his guess and this is not the right moment to talk about it, he refrains from telling her.

"Can I have this?" he asks instead, rolling the morning newspaper with Seiya's scribbles together to hide the article about "Godfrey Norton" from her view. "I didn't have time to read the news this morning."

She throws him a sharp, calculating glance before her lips stretch into an amused smile, which light up her features like dawn after a long, dark night.

"If you want to collect the news about Seiya so badly, you can have it—as long as you don't sell it to other fans." Noticing that the singer has just returned with her bag, she mercilessly takes it up a notch: "Although I know that you find athletic people with dark hair and blue eyes attractive, I'd never have expected _you_ to be a fan!"

x.

"Fans" were the music lovers and movie addicts who appreciated his work and supported him by visiting his concerts and watching his movies—or at least that was Kou Seiya's definition of "fans" in the beginning. Tiptoeing around the midnight-blue van in his latest disguise (no one paid attention to the diffident crew member with the blue baseball cap, whose clumsy, abrupt gestures didn't resemble Three Light's lead singer's in the least), Seiya brushed away a pang of guilt about leaving Taiki and Yaten alone with the deadly army of girls, most of whom had come for him if the "I heart Seiya-sama" banners they were carrying were any indication. He had really liked the girls at first—warm, cheerful, pretty females who smiled and blushed at him whenever they met. But with every performance, the amount of this pleasant type of fan shrank in percentage as the reckless trampling hordes of ecstatically shouting, maniacally grinning, idol-eating sleepwalkers took over.

"Our fans pay our bills, Yaten!" Taiki had whispered before they climbed out of the van, unaware of Seiya, who was changing clothes behind them. "If they find out that you dump all of their love letters into the trash without reading any, there will be a backlash—and we're going to return to the circus, where you'll have to feed the wild cats while I'll have to play the clown for the children."

Those females, who would kill to hear Seiya sing even if Yaten insulted them verbally, were far more dangerous than tigers and lions—Yaten, who had always got along with cats of all sorts—had retorted. And Taiki could only be so polite towards his own fans since Taiki actually got all the civilized, courteous, intelligent supporters whereas Yaten and Seiya got all the clinically disturbed psychos, who went berserk whenever they sang. Even the cute, harmless looking girls shared their explicit fantasies online, ripped off their bras and panties after the concerts to throw them on the stage, stalked and guilt-tripped and threatened their idols, and—this had happened more than once!—even attacked them physically. Seiya, who had socialized indiscriminately with everyone at first, had already been assaulted and groped and drugged and robbed until he developed a phobia of women while Yaten, who had both male and female groupies, had received disturbingly erotic photos of anatomically correct, voodoo-like tiny or (in one case) giant human-sized silicone ball-jointed dolls, all of whom bore an uncanny resemblance to him. Taiki, who only received love poems and watercolour portraits and pretty porcelain dolls and rare flower seeds from his fans, didn't have the right to reproach either of his less fortunate brothers, who had begun to suffer from recurring asthma attacks and shakes whenever they had to attend a public event…

"You're running away again?" Yaten, who had turned around to Seiya for emotional support, had stared in indignation at Seiya's new outfit, which insulted his sense of fashion, while Taiki had complained about running out of excuses for why Seiya always insisted on coming to the set alone.

"Just tell them I was too drunk to get out of bed this morning or have spent the night with a groupie and you two don't know where I am!" Seiya had suggested. It was an explanation which would fit his public image and which would appease Igarashi-san, who had often tried to cure Seiya of his fear of women to no avail. Three Lights lacked the obligatory womanizing bad boy for a mainstream band—Igarashi-san observed. While it was easy to promote a lead singer who wasn't "only" a singing prodigy but also a gifted actor and dancer and drummer and athlete, they couldn't possibly let the public know that said singer spent all his free time writing sentimental song lyrics and unsent letters to his older foster sister. This sort of love might not be immoral but was still eccentric enough to be regarded as nerdy or even creepy by the fans. The faster Seiya got over it and let go of his dream to live with Kakyuu some day—so Igarashi-san, to whom Kakyuu was only a pretty girl with overly strict parents, believed—the easier Seiya's life as an idol would be.

x.

After changing his disguise again in the public toilet (he had become paranoid after being stalked and harassed by a psychotic fan), Seiya stretched out on the park bench and watched the clouds above him pass. Freedom, quietness, the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind, the sight of the birds flapping their wings or sailing through the air… If he wanted to, he could blend out all the other noises until he forgot that he was only stealing a few minutes to relax in a large city in the rush hour, surrounded by passersby who were enjoying the last warm days before the last autumn flowers died.

It almost felt like last summer on Kinmoku. Although the sound of the waves and the screams of the seagulls were missing, Seiya could easily conjure them up. If he opened his eyes and reached behind him, Kakyuu would be sitting there, gathering dying flowers for her incense burner or sketching the twigs and stones on the path with a dip pen, a soft sable brush, and lightfast (she always insisted on lightfast) drawing inks. Taiki and Yaten would be reading (or, in Yaten's case, leafing through art and fashion magazines) on a nearby bench. In the distance, their parents would be watching them while sipping cocktails on the porch. And Seiya would slowly drift into sleep while Kakyuu was talking in a low voice about her utopia in which all people and animals were living in everlasting contentment and peace—for no evil, which had escaped from Pandora's Box, had ever really existed…

x.

 _Looks like painted shit! Smells like perfumed shit! Feels and tastes exactly like I'd expect sugared, hardened shit to feel and taste!_ Yaten beheld the cadmium-yellow bun, which he was holding between his index finger and his thumb, with an expression of deep melancholy. _All my senses tell me that this stuff_ is _shit! How low the world must have sunk if we three voluntarily eat shit!_

 _Yaten!_ Taiki, whose face had taken on a sick hue, chided. _I expect a little bit more style from you, considering the upbringing you had!_

 _My upbringing—_ Yaten's eyes narrowed as he dropped the bun into the trash, _—has taught me to say the truth! You can tell me that blackmailing the corrupt conglomerate bosses, controlling the incompetent politicians, using the dumb terrorists, and executing all the traitors and moles who wreak havoc and cost the Organization money, which could have been used for educational and medical purposes, is cruel and wrong! But no one can convince me that this stuff doesn't taste like sugar-coated shit!_ He flipped his fragrant silver-white ponytail with an air of withering contempt before pointing his thumb accusingly behind his shoulder at their poster advertising Galaxia's Golden Sunkissed Bun. _Not everything at Kinmoku Sei was ideal, but brainwashing people into eating sugar-coated shit is even worse!_

 _We can go back if you want,_ Taiki nonchalantly suggested, taking the wind out of Yaten's sail when Yaten had already prepared himself for a rant on why everything they had to do as idols was unethical.

Yaten didn't care to respond since he had already answered that question under different circumstances—when they didn't have either shelter or food and the thought of going back began to sound like a sensible option.

On the set, Igarashi-san and Akane-san were discussing the latest fly in the ointment: vandals who claimed that the advertisement for Galaxia's Golden Sunkissed Bun was sexist (or "reverse sexist"?), which was absurd since neither Igarashi-san nor Akane-san could see any moral problem in draping their protégés topless on the sand, much less in making them share a bun in a suggestive way to attract the customers who were expected to buy the product. Sexism or no sexism, the greater evil—Seiya mused—was definitely the taste of the buns and the obvious health hazard of eating them, but no one seemed interested in such a simple, unsophisticated thought.

Three Lights had to devour the buns in the most seductive way possible, ignoring all the attractive girls on the beach—was this sexist or reverse sexist, Taiki wondered?—in order to focus on what was supposed to be the most tasty, most addictive dish Galaxia had ever created. In the background, Three Lights' first single _Search for your Love_ , a hidden message to Kakyuu, would play—Yaten reminded them in bitterness—their promise of care and everlasting, selfless, platonic love, tainted by the commercial world beyond the borders of Kinmoku Sei…

Another can of black spray paint was smashed against their window frame, and a dark hooded figure disappeared behind the corner before Akane-san, who had lost her patience, ripped the door open to storm out. Intrigued by the incident, Seiya peered out of the window and discovered the graffiti, which the lanky man had sprayed with the help of a stencil on the wall on the other side of the street: a pair of giant black crows, surrounded by seven nestlings.

x.

 _You refuse because you don't want to?_ Her eyes had turned into narrow slits, which were framed by extremely long, extremely curved eyelashes, and brightly lit from the inside by a reddish-golden fire. _Who do you think you are, Seiya? You aren't the last human being on earth, who can live without a sense of obligation—you have moral and social responsibilities and a destiny to fulfill, just like anyone else on this planet! You've been born into a society, without which you'd never have survived. It doesn't matter whether you like it or not! As a human being, you have your damn debt to pay off!_

Seiya had genuinely tried to be amiable and considerate at first, even joked that he would be a lousy leader because he would force all the members to dance and sing. Instead of scolding him, she should feel relieved that he didn't plan to become a detective. In that case, his work and family responsibilities would clash for sure.

_You're always smiling and joking around, brimming with confidence and optimism—but you know what? In truth, you're an ever-worrying, ever-pessimistic, cynical, cold bastard who is too much of a coward to believe that this world is worth our hard work and that even a butterfly like you could make a real difference if only you tried!_

Seiya, who wasn't accustomed to verbalize his feelings and thoughts, didn't know why he was stung by her words. But for some obscure reason, he was suddenly beside himself with cold fury. Soon enough, his sarcastic side, which seldom lacked a riposte, took over and provided him with the words his gentler side would never have said: He was fed up with Kinmoku Sei, their artificial paradise, in which he and his siblings had been kept for over fifteen years. He was also sick of their exaggerated care and love, which bordered on mania. He was so tired of having to trick bodyguards and steal a motorboat every time he went out to experience the sort of life normal teenagers (those who didn't have insane parents plotting to impose eternal childhood on most of the world's population) were living. Who did _she_ think she was? The golden queen of the galaxy, whose every wish was other people's command? Why should other people, who liked their own way of life, sacrifice their freedom to live the life she believed to be the best for them while she wasn't much better than the average idiot of terrorist leader who waged war for a silly imaginary god and killed out of religious fanaticism?

_There are children who have to learn everything the hard way, and humans usually don't value what they can easily have. You're just like Lucifer, the angel who was too arrogant and too stubborn to serve. I realize now that I've made the mistake of offering you the world on a silver plate!_

_Millions of people are dreaming of the opportunities which only_ you _have—so many codename members would immediately kill to be you! But if you're so proud and think you're old and strong enough to choose your own future, I'm not going to hold you back! Don't believe that we're going to move a finger to support you, though. You've already cost the Organization more than you can ever pay back. You should be glad that we're not going to execute you because you're not worth the bullet and the time…_

 _I'm going to pack my bags then_ , he coldly returned. _Since you don't want to see me around anymore, I'm going to leave the first thing tomorrow!_

Infuriated by his retort, she fisted his hair when he strolled past her to the door, jerking so hard at it that he, wincing in pain, had to suppress the urge to hit her.

 _Pack?_ Raising her reddish-blonde brow, she turned to his father, who was nonchalantly mixing another cocktail for the evening. _What do_ you _possess which hasn't been given to you by us? What do you mean with "pack"?_

 _The kid has been spoiled for too long_ , his father, who must be drunk as well, darkly remarked. _It's time that he learns how real freedom tastes and that in the "normal" world, the dispossessed don't even get enough air and sunshine._

Vaguely, through a thick fog, Seiya could see Kakyuu hunching over her incense burner, which she had been cleaning, grasping at the edge of the mahogany table while large, round teardrops were running down her pale cheeks and falling on her sketchbook, staining her latest drawing of the sweet osmanthus blossoms he had collected for her. Yaten, who had just emerged from the shower after his nap, was standing in the corridor with narrowed eyes and clenched fists. Even Taiki, who had been immersed in his self-imposed task of memorizing Milton's _Paradise Lost_ , was now staring past his leather-bound book into space. A dark shadow fell over the room as the light outside changed, and Seiya knew exactly whom they would follow, whose side they had chosen.

It was a gift he had never known that he possessed. Something in him triggered and fostered the sort of love which couldn't be bought with luxury, guilt trips, or even years of care. When he left the room, Yaten and Taiki instantly left it as well. _Fifteen years_ , he could hear his mother saying to his father through the closed door while he was walking down the stairs. _Insolent, ungrateful, loveless bastards, whom we've treated as if they were a gift from heaven! Fifteen years of raising the dirty little bastards of some womanizing lowlife and treating them like your own child; fifteen years of chasing after Seiya's back, grooming Taiki's garden, combing Yaten's hair, and mixing all of them their customized perfumes—and they insult you and abandon you for the merest slip of the tongue when you're drunk and sad and asking them a favour for the very first time._

x.

 _You know, I wouldn't be surprised if "Anokata-mama" and "Anokata-papa" had invested in these buns just to spite us,_ Seiya darkly remarked, whereupon Taiki and Yaten groaned and sighed. They had to make it through the next shooting session alive and do their job well to earn enough for this winter in case they didn't get the roles in _Detective Boy Holmes_ , a new live action series in which all of them would be miscast but which could propel all of them into stardom.

The next day, under the admiring and envious glances of the crew, Three Lights nibbled at the inedible buns with a synchronized "Hmmm!" and sported a perfectly faked post-coital glow, in Igarashi Shizuka-san's words. Luckily, even the smart and observant daughter of their agent hadn't guessed that Seiya and Yaten had replaced all the original buns with the yellow-painted buns Taiki had prepared for breakfast.

x.

 _You're running away again, Seiya, as always—but no one can ever outrun their fate! Even if you lie to the world and deny your roots, you can't lie to yourself and deny that you've been raised by crows and are one of them! One day, when you realize that our dream will only make the world better and not worse, you_ will _come back to Kinmoku Sei, where you and your brothers belong._

Her long, lush strawberry blonde curls, which she was wearing loose, gleamed golden and copper red in the setting sun. In the distance, Seiya could see Kakyuu's darker reddish-brown head through a window of the top floor, where she had been locked up lest she entertained the idea to flee with her foster brothers. Of course he was going to return to Kinmoku Sei some day—Seiya told his mother with a carefree smile—when he was independent and capable of giving Kakyuu the life she deserved. And all the four of them would be free and live happily ever after even if the secret services brought down the Organization and they had to flee to Venice for a showdown à la _Casino Royale_.

Venice was just a running joke, but they both knew that all the other things he said were meant to be taken at face value. His mother's frown deepened until it seemed carved forever into her chiseled bronze face. _Bring down the Organization_ , she whispered and chuckled. _The governments can never "bring down" dissent because dissatisfaction cannot be killed but only removed by treating its roots—something which the corrupt, well-fed bureaucrats and big names won't ever feel inclined to do._

 _We've seen worse times than this_ —she coolly contemplated— _we're going to make it through!_

 _Even if tragedy strikes and the Organization is completely dismantled, vigilantism will rise_ —she predicted, indicating the red sun on the horizon, which was setting but was going to rise again. _No invention had ever been made to be forgotten, and a groundbreaking discovery like the Silver Bullet can never be stopped. Like the mythical golden-eyed bird, which burns itself to death at the end of its life to be resurrected, the Sherringford Society will only grow stronger after burning in fire!_

The green isle disappeared from Seiya's view as the night fell and the boat reached the shore, where their bodyguards were going to drop his brothers and him before they returned to "Anokata's" refuge. All he had now were Yaten and Taiki and Kakyuu's incense burner, which still smelled of wild roses and the first kinmokusei blossoms, which had bloomed and died too early. For the last time, Seiya let his thoughts wander and linger on his mother's parting words before he eventually brushed them aside to focus on the immediate tasks. Dealing with the consequences of his newfound freedom wouldn't be easy but also not too hard.

 _Someday—and it doesn't matter if it takes you so long that neither your father nor I will live to see it!—when you've seen the dark, hideous side of the world and are ready to take over my work, the reborn phoenix will rise from its ashes to soar. You'll be the Organization's last Anokata, who will use the Silver Bullet to destroy the Werewolf…_ She was glowing with an intense inner fire as she told him her vision, and it occurred to Seiya for the very first time that she might be really mad and not only enthusiastic and passionate.

_…When this finally happens, the utopia we've designed will be created at last—and this tired old world will sink beneath the sea in a giant flood and be lost and forgotten. To you, all the other leaders and their supporters will only be small cockroaches: ugly, inferior, bothersome bugs—the pesky little pest you have to remove from your home._

x.

 


	38. Part Four: Since Ai firmly...

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**Since Ai firmly…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

Since Ai firmly believes that Seiya's fans will even rent motorboats to stalk them after the musical, they're walking on foot to La Fenice. The brilliant afternoon sun is beaming through skies of broken clouds; and fallen autumn leaves in deep shades of red, purple, and yellow are plastered against the glistening masegni on the ground like colourful patterns on a picturesque but slippery designer carpet, which the city has rolled out for its honoured guests to walk on.

"Infinity was funded by the Organization, and Professor Tomoe—Stinger—was a codename member. But you said that the uniforms weren't black but green and brown and that one could apply for Infinity although the final decision usually rested with the mad scientist. Does it mean that the personally picked 'guinea-pig prodigies' were Stinger's personal project and not the Organization's? What did Professor Tomoe want to achieve by studying prodigies with fast reactions?"

They are strolling along one of the cities' many narrow winding lanes, where it's almost impossible for two slim people to walk side by side without touching. Although there are less tourists on the streets in November than in July during the holiday season or in February or March during Carnival, there are still enough people coming their way so that the three of them have to walk in file. That doesn't prevent Ai from holding Seiya's arm or hand, however, and Shinichi would have believed their gushing, lovey-dovey behaviour to be an act if it didn't look so perfectly right.

It's like watching his own parents in an especially amiable mood—when their petty jealousies and the frustration with his father's looming deadline and nagging editors make way for a glow of warmth and acceptance, rendering them oblivious to the outside world and the opinions of other people. Charade or no charade, this looks like heartrending, tooth-rotting, foolish love; and never before in his life has Shinichi, who is pricked by his conscience and the stolen screwdriver in his jeans pocket, felt so much like a villain.

"Who has told you that the requirement for becoming a guinea-pig prodigy was an exceptional speed of reaction?" Without letting go of Seiya's hand, Ai turns her head to Shinichi in surprise. The intense admiration in her gaze feels like a relaxing, restorative massage to his ego, and it costs Shinichi some effort to admit that he has gained the information in a stroke of luck, as Kyogoku has kept in touch with Ran's idol Maeda Satoru, who knew Tenoh.

"The guinea-pig prodigies were Stinger's personal pet project," she tells him. "He practically sold his genius to the Organization to fund it. Infinity, on the other hand, was affiliated with the Organization although Stinger was the director and the official owner. The codename members would frequently turn up at the academy to recruit the most promising prodigies. The majority of the students didn't know anything about the Organization, though."

"Tomoe's dream was to create the ideal human race," Seiya interjects, pushing a few locks which are peeking from beneath his fedora back into place and raising his high collar to hide his face as a group of young women pass by. "He believed that only prodigies with a tactile disposition possessed authentic personalities and wouldn't let themselves be ground down by societal pressure. If there was a gene which he could extract to modify the DNA of a non-prodigy, he would be able to turn the average person into a tactile prodigy, who instinctively knew how to use all their resources. Such a person would be, at least in Tomoe's eyes, the ideal human being, who would always be at peace with themselves because they lived up to their own potential—beyond society's distinction between appropriate and inappropriate, good and evil."

"So, in short, he attempted to create the perfect sociopath," Shinichi dryly remarks. "And what did the lunatic plan to do with all the people who refused to have their genes altered? Kill them off just because they don't fit his idea of how a human being should be?"

Tomoe may be insane but not violent—Seiya claims, defending the professor with more fervour than Shinichi expected from him. "I don't think he wanted to murder anyone. He was convinced that he was doing humankind a favour—which he might really have done if he had succeeded… Many people commit suicide or run amok because they despise themselves. I don't even find it eccentric to believe that such a gene would have changed the world for the better although I doubt it would have managed to eradicate the very existence of violence as Tomoe believed."

Evidently, Seiya is fond of the mad scientist—which actually doesn't surprise Shinichi, as lunatics of a feather flock together. Slowing down so that the three of them can walk next to each other again when they reach the vast, sunlit Campo San Polo, which is teeming with smartly dressed people even in November, Ai shoots Shinichi bewildered, inquiring looks. "Why are you so bitter?" her eyes seem to ask. Yet the realization that she hasn't got a clue why he feels so unhappy with their present situation only fuels his fury. There are few things Shinichi hates more than being kept in the dark. And the fact that Seiya, despite being lied to, still knows more than he does is an insult considering what the two of them have gone through together.

"Sociopaths aren't capable of empathy and love while tactile prodigies, who are accustomed to prioritizing sensations and emotions over abstract concepts, are usually very sensitive to the feelings and needs of other people," Ai points out. "One has to draw a clear distinction between them. I think Stinger really wanted to help non-prodigies to live a fulfilled life by developing their true potential, and he was rather agreeable in his more lucid moments."

Professor Tomoe—whom Seiya still visits from time to time whenever he flies to Tokyo—is still very agreeable when he is in control of himself, and he isn't in the least violent during his fits either, Seiya asserts. Whenever he doesn't indulge in his spine-chilling laugh attacks and disconnected, rambling speeches, Professor Tomoe can pass for a half-way sane scientist, whose genius is only overshadowed by his generosity.

"The student accommodation at the Infinity Towers cost an arm and a leg and a kidney into the bargain, which was why the students didn't manage to set aside anything for their future or their hobbies although we were all paid for our projects," Ai reminisces. "But guinea-pig prodigies like Tenoh-san and Kaioh-san didn't have to pay for anything at Infinity because Stinger was their patron."

"Were you one of the guinea-pig prodigies?" Shinichi asks although he can easily guess the answer.

"No, I wasn't," she darkly admits as she pushes her translucent violet shawl, which has concealed her hair until now, down to her neck before she resigns, unties the knot, and gives her singer the shawl. She has been sweating under her improvised headgear, and her cheeks are glowing in a deeper shade of red than Shinichi has ever seen. "Stinger told me that being intelligent and having a keen disposition towards the tactile isn't the same as being prodigiously talented after I failed to evade the blot of India ink he shot at me. But he was kindly asked to welcome me into his academy if he valued his life. That naturally settled the disagreement over my status as a prodigy!"

"He changed his opinion later, though." Seiya gives her slightly damp hair a few strokes, ruffling it while using only his right hand to fold the shawl and stuff it into her handbag, which he has slung over his shoulder. "He told me he had begun to prefer intelligent people to tactile prodigies after burning down Infinity."

"Why didn't you accept Stinger's invitation to study at Infinity?" Shinichi asks his main suspect as they take the turn into another narrow lane, where they have to walk in file again. "From her reaction when you claimed that you would never have passed the IQ tests at Infinity—" he indicates Ai, "—and from what I've learned about the requirements, I gather Professor Tomoe noticed your speed and asked you to become a guinea-pig prodigy but you declined."

"I didn't like the uniform." The singer flashes him an innocent smile over his shoulder. "Yaten told me that the combination of green and brown doesn't look good on someone with black hair and blue eyes."

Shinichi has expected Ai to sigh in exasperation and inform him about what really happened. Hence he is positively stunned by her strange lack of reaction. After beholding the bridge in front of them with the wide-eyed interest of a tourist on her first day in Venice, she distractedly remarks that Seiya has his quirks, one of which is his violent dislike of uniforms.

"Why did Stinger incinerate Infinity? Did he really believe that he was Nero? Or wasn't it Stinger who burned down Infinity but someone else—someone who had to get rid of a corpse, for instance?"

Seiya shoots Shinichi a sharp, inquiring look while Ai, who has begun to resent the insinuation, narrows her eyes.

"Do you really believe that Tenoh-san murdered Yamada and then burned down Infinity to dispose of his corpse?" Her frown has deepened the fine lines on her face—the first, barely visible indications of wrinkles around her mouth and her eyes—whereupon Shinichi has to suppress the impulse to smooth out those wrinkles by rubbing her frown away. "That's the most fanciful theory you could have come up with."

"No, a more fanciful theory I can come up with is the possibility that _you_ killed Yamada by accident when he stumbled over your research at Infinity while he was spying on Tenoh so that Stinger had to burn down Infinity to save you and himself from being executed by the crows," Shinichi coolly returns. "You received your code name only a few months before that incident, and Stinger cost the Organization too much money but didn't seem to make any progress with his guinea-pig prodigies at all, judging from the lack of information I found at Pandora's Box when I looked into his research findings. But since there is no evidence to support this—admittedly far-fetched!—theory while the possibility that Tenoh accidentally killed Yamada while defending herself seems the more plausible scenario after what I've heard about her fighting style, I'll be following this line of reasoning first."

Ai only gives him an exasperated look while Seiya shakes his head, chuckling to himself.

"I thought she was exaggerating when she described you to me." He flashes Shinichi a good-humoured, mischievous smirk, absently wrapping his arm around Ai's waist to pull her towards him as a group of urban sketchers rushes past them to Canal Grande.

"What did she say?" Shinichi demands in irritation, which evaporates when his gaze falls on the soft smile on Ai's lips.

"She said you're so obsessed with mysteries that you can't help imagining doomsday scenarios, collecting all the clues and connecting all the signs and dots you can find to solve a mystery whenever you encounter one. But things aren't always so closely connected in real life. Tomoe really burned down the academy because he was disappointed by his research. He told me he wished he could turn back time because he should never have sold his freedom to the Black Organization to fund it."

Taking advantage of the singer's talkative mood, Shinichi asks him in passing what SB really means and only receives the flippant response that SB must stand for 'super-butchy' if the nickname has been chosen to reflect Tenoh Haruka's character. And Shinichi has already calculated the speed at which he needs to kick Seiya if he wants to propel the insufferable guy into the Canal (bored by his long convalescence, the Professor has created a new pair of power-enhancing kick shoes for Shinichi) when Ai, noticing his mounting frustration with her boyfriend, soothingly remarks that she doesn't know what SB means either.

"What did Stinger call _you_ , by the way?"

"Sherry, or M."

The smile in her eyes looks so relaxed and genuine that Shinichi, taken aback by her answer, remains mute for a moment.

"M?" He grabs her by the arm in astonishment, forcing her to turn round to face him. "Why M?" It sounds too simple for Stinger to call Ai "M" just because her family name is Miyano if the madman calls Tenoh Haruka, whose family name and first name don't begin with either an S or a B, "SB".

"I don't know." She looks perfectly honest when she meets his searching gaze. "He said it's related to my code name and my personality. Back then I didn't have time to ponder over his senseless ramblings. And since we weren't close unlike Tenoh-san and him, he didn't tell me."

"'M' probably means either Manzanilla or Moscatel, which are two different types of sherry." Seiya, who is still holding her in his arm, smirks down at her. "Manzanilla is poignant and bone-dry while Moscatel is floral and sweet—which is why I'm positive that 'M' either changes its meaning with your mood or stands for Manzanilla and not Mosca—"

She instantly rams her elbow into the singer's side before he can finish the sentence, causing him to groan in pain and complain that he hasn't only become a victim of domestic violence but is also getting addicted to her abuse if she doesn't stop it. Why has he even paid attention to the nicknames the mad professor has given his students, Shinichi wonders in annoyance. The initials are just another distracting and whimsical detail which slows down his investigation like the Sherlock Holmes painting. In this instance, his obsession with minor details has only proven to be a hindrance, and Shinichi resolves not to let these unimportant clues distract him from the case again.

x.

* * *

 

**"You looked much happier…"**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

"You looked much happier when you still had a girlfriend, Kudo," Ai observes. "Since Mori-san came with you to Venice, I'm sure the situation isn't as hopeless as you believe. You should hurry up and patch things up with her before she falls in love with someone else." She flashes Shinichi an encouraging smile, oblivious to the fact that she has just poured burning oil into his wounds.

How dense must Ai have become if she genuinely believes that his rotten mood has anything to do with Ran, Shinichi wonders. She has interlocked her fingers with Seiya's again as if they were joined by two giant neodymium magnets, which would unfailingly crush any luckless human being that—intentionally or inadvertently—comes between the two of them. In Paris, at Quai Montebello, Shinichi and Ai held hands as well, although the gesture wasn't laden with romance since they were only posing as siblings. Still, touching her triggered a wave of pure, intense euphoria in Shinichi, which he didn't want to analyze for fear that it would disappear the moment he tried. He can still remember the smoky clouds and the choppy water as vividly as if they had been in Paris only yesterday. She was wearing her new red coat and her favourite indigo scarf, which concealed half of her face and comically resembled a helmet whenever she drew it over her head. In the distance, a street musician was singing "Charade"—and the world appeared for once so marvelous that Shinichi could almost have cried for the simple reason that he wasn't accustomed to such flawless, absolute perfection.

Despite admitting that holding hands fostered a sense of belonging and trust, Ai hypocritically claimed that she had never needed the sickening physical display of affection even when she was a real kid, and let go of his hand to warm her hands in the pockets of her coat afterwards.

"Ran is wearing a white-gold ring with a heart-shaped sapphire in a perfect cut, which I haven't given her," Shinichi informs Ai. "It looks like an engagement ring although she is wearing it on the wrong hand, which makes me suspect that she hasn't accepted the proposal yet but has agreed to give the relationship a serious try. The gem is of a velvety cornflower blue—also called 'bleu de roi' or 'Kashmir'—and is generally valued as the most expensive of all sapphires. It's also so large and immaculate that it must have cost a tidy sum. Even though I try not to pry into her private life, I've naturally come to the conclusion that she must have received it from Okita Soushi—the kendo prodigy who always beat Hattori during the tournaments—because (if you don't count me!) he is the only young man among her acquaintances who can afford such a ring without going broke in the near future. Ran and he met in Osaka after Ran moved there to teach karate. She sometimes blushes when she mentions his kendo skills; and since neither Ran nor I have the motivation to destroy this budding relationship to resume what we once had before Pandora's Box, I think she will get married in one or two years at the latest—but not to me, as I once hoped."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Kudo," Ai murmurs, visibly distressed by the news and also bewildered by his attitude, as if she had expected him to fight for the past relationship although Ran has moved on. He isn't extremely unhappy about Ran's engagement, Shinichi laconically adds. While he can't deny that it was weird to watch Ran replace him with a kendo-champion version of himself (Okita resembles Shinichi so much that Shinichi has begun to wonder whether his father has a womanizing past), Shinichi has grown accustomed to the freedom the single life offers.

"The single life" might have been the wrong expression, as it conjures up images of all-night parties, awkward sleepovers, and alcohol-induced, short-lived love affairs with shady strangers—none of which Shinichi has ever indulged in or even been interested in. Mercifully, Ai seems too shaken up by the realization that Shinichi no longer contemplates a possible future with Ran to pay attention to his unfortunate choice of words while Seiya is completely absorbed in a detail so minor and irrelevant that Shinichi is almost intrigued by the singer's whimsical personality.

"A heart-shaped sapphire? Can the gem change its colour?" Seiya's curiosity, genuine and intense, has an innocent, childlike quality to it—a character trait which Shinichi believes to be the reason why Ai is drawn to him.

No, it can't, Shinichi tells the singer, whose knowledge of gems is as limited as that of an elementary school kid. Sapphires come in all colours of the rainbow although they're usually associated with an iconic, intense blue, as sapphires of other colours like pink or yellow are rare and have often received a heat treatment. Sapphires usually can't change their colours, however. "The colour-changing gems are alexandrites and zultanites."

"Too bad," Seiya remarks, darting Ai a fleeting glance as if to gauge her reaction. "Colour changing or not, I've never cared much about sapphires, especially not when they're heart-shaped. It's so… sappy and ostentatious."

An odd remark from a man who was sentimental enough to propose to his girlfriend or fake girlfriend with a Cartier love ring! But since Shinichi has decided not to let other people's relationships distract him again, he decides that this time, he will just ignore Seiya's comment since there is absolutely no rational reason why he should give a damn about the fact that Seiya Kou shows so much interest in engagement rings.

x.

"You seem to know Stinger well despite turning down his offer to study at Infinity," Shinichi remarks after they've crossed Canal Grande on a vaporetto, which was packed with Seiya's fans (all of whom were easily recognizable by their battered Three Lights Fan Club badge—a long-tailed shooting star on a midnight-blue sky). At the sight of them, the long-suffering actor promptly tossed Ai her sunglasses and her shawl, which he had fished out of her handbag, and altered his own face with a pair of glasses and a ginger moustache. At the same time, he also changed his demeanour and his gait; and Shinichi himself needed a few seconds of careful observation to recognize Seiya Kou behind the mask of the bookish nerd.

"I went to a few parties and visited most of the concerts and exhibitions before Tomoe burned down Infinity." The singer, who has removed his fake moustache and shed his disguise to return to his usual relaxed self, casts Ai an apprehensive glance when she gloomily adds, "I bet you've been loitering on our campus during the concerts and exhibitions because 'Michiru-sama' was there." But he makes no attempt whatsoever to defend himself, either because he knows from past experience that it will be futile or because it's the truth and he doesn't want to lie to her.

"Who else knew Stinger and hang out at Infinity although they didn't study there?"

"No one I can think of. Yaten and Taiki often accompanied me, but they didn't talk with Tomoe at all since they never stayed long enough to meet him."

They're going to arrive at La Fenice in a few minutes, and Shinichi mentally goes through all the possible tricks he can use to make Ai come with him instead of watching the musical. Unfortunately, nothing he can come up with sounds right or at least not outright evil, and he can't think of a sensible argument to make her have dinner with Hakuba and him instead of watching the musical if Seiya is really her boyfriend. Under normal circumstances (and if he were in Seiya's shoes), Shinichi would have thought her behaviour to be exemplary—the impeccable conduct of a woman who gets her priorities right and supports her celebrity boyfriend during the opening night instead of leaving him alone to run off with a male friend (and previous love interest, if there is a grain of truth in Seiya's throwaway remark that she was in love with Shinichi). In this case, however, Shinichi is seething with anger at Ai's grossly unfair distribution of time and effort. They haven't seen each other for three, almost four years—and she heartlessly turns him down just because she can't bear to leave her singer (who doesn't really need her emotional support and who can take care of himself during the performance!) alone.

"Why wasn't Stinger executed for incinerating Infinity?" Shinichi asks Ai, as he feels like provoking her a bit in revenge for her maddening nonchalance and her callous neglect when she consigned their past partnership to oblivion. "Was he the crows' backup option in case you failed? Was that the reason why they'd have executed you when you refused to continue your research although you were the head scientist who overlooked the development of APTX4869 _and_ the only person who could continue your parents' work?"

Of course Shinichi is only making an educated guess, as Pandora's Box didn't contain any useful piece of information on APTX4869. On the ship, Hattori and Shinichi speculated that the files on the "elixir of life" or the "Silver Bullet" must have been hidden and protected by the Night Baron but couldn't find it anywhere. While Shinichi was away and Ai was asleep, Hattori—who possessed more stamina than any other person Shinichi knew—must have continued the search.

From the sigh which has just escaped Ai's lips and the alert expression which has stolen into her eyes, Shinichi deduces that his guess about Professor Tomoe was right. Contrary to his expectations, however, Ai doesn't seem unnerved by his statement but immediately accepts his discovery, which is even more puzzling in view of her abject horror when they talked about Tenoh's motivation to stay at Infinity.

"You haven't lost your touch, Kudo." She smiles, giving his arm a fleeting nudge with the back of her hand when he catches up with her so that they can walk side by side along this lane, which is just wide enough for three people. "Stinger may have been unstable and far too immersed in his prodigy project, but he was the only person who could easily comprehend what I did and analyze all of my experiments even without my help. In fact, he had his own ideas of how to develop APTX and also created several well-functioning modifications. If he hadn't been such a complete nutcase, the Organization would have made _him_ their head scientist."

"Could Tenoh have died of one of Stinger's APTX modifications?"

"Impossible!" Her answer is immediate and confident. "All of Stinger's modifications would have lengthened her life by accellerating the regenerative process or caused instant death by heart attack. Her corpse would have shown all the visible signs of a heart attack, which would have been painful despite it's swiftness."

"Even if she had been given a pill or a capsule of the modified APTX in combination with, say, ten capsules of a powerful, undetectable painkiller?" Shinichi secretly observes Seiya's reaction while keeping his gaze on Ai's face as he moves in for the kill. "Tenoh complained of headaches and asked Kino for chilled natural mineral water although the backstage café had all sorts of beverages. Let's assume for a moment that she usually didn't care about mineral water and preferred hot beverages or alcoholic drinks but planned to take a drug whose effect would have been severely impaired by coffee."

Ai visibly pales although she stubbornly holds his gaze, and Seiya Kou looks suitably wary although he only squeezes her hand without saying anything.

"I don't know whether she could have died of it or not. In such a case, the different drugs might react with each other and cause side effects no one can anticipate," she coolly reflects, adjusting her mauve sunglasses on her nose with the automatic gesture of a person who is accustomed to wearing them. "I wouldn't ever recommend anyone to try this out without sufficient carefully conducted preliminary tests on rats _and_ dim-witted humans who either don't value their health or don't have anything to lose in case something goes wrong."

Meanwhile, the warm, gentle breeze coming off the sea has cooled down drastically so Shinichi has to zip and button up his jacket. Simultaneously, Ai loops her shawl once more around her neck and gestures for her boyfriend, who doesn't seem to mind the cold, to wrap his scarf at least once around his neck as well.

"Well, I suppose it's time for a little confession," sighs Seiya, who has remained uncharacteristically silent throughout the whole exchange. "As you might have noticed by now, I usually tote Shiho's bag around for her because she already carries her small handbag and because the larger bag, where we keep her painkillers, our snacks, her paperbacks, and the wigs and scarves for our disguises, is too heavy for her. Last night, I actually gave Haruka-san a few capsules of Shiho's painkillers before the musical because Haruka-san complained of headaches while we discussed her worrisome inability to respect other people's privacy…"

Greedy and immodest as Tenoh Haruka was, she demanded even more than the few capsules Seiya had given her, claiming that her migraine was extremely severe. While the singer did suspect that Tenoh had become addicted to Ai's painkillers, which he often stole for Tenoh whenever she had a migraine, he didn't want to be stingy. Noticing that Ai usually only needed one or two capsules every day, he ended up emptying the whole packet into Tenoh's palms and only kept two capsules for Ai, which he gave Ai during the first act when her migraines became unbearable. Unfortunately, Ai's migraine attack was worse than usual, so he had to ransack Tenoh's dressing room for the painkillers during the first act while Tenoh was onstage…

"She seemed to have kept the painkillers in her trouser pockets, though, which was why I had to leave the opera house to search for Shiho's painkillers at home."

"Couldn't you simply have waited until the first act was over?" Shinichi raises his brow in mistrust, knowing that he has to take everything the singer says with a tablespoon of salt.

"Oh, I did," Seiya cheerily asserts. "But Haruka-san claimed that she had already swallowed all of them and that I was mean for reclaiming something I'd already given her. Then she threw me out of her dressing room—barking that she had to speed-clean it in the intervals now that I had dared to mess up her sacred refuge—and I had to leave La Fenice at once to get Shiho painkillers because Shiho can be scary whenever she suffers from a migraine."

"So you _did_ steal my packet of APAH, after all!" Ai exclaims in fury and relief, pinching the arm she is holding. "You should have told me about it sooner instead of letting me fret about it all night!" This is going to have serious repercussions—she threatens—if he doesn't make it up to her after the musical.

Her wayward life partner endures her wrath with the patient, rueful smile of a husband who understands that he is in the wrong. However, his timing for the confession was so perfect and his words so well-chosen that he must have planned and mentally gone through this scenario in advance—most probably after the interrogations last night, hours before Shinichi posed the question. Taken aback, Shinichi realizes in grudging admiration that he has impulsively walked into the singer's trap when he challenged Ai with his deductions about Professor Tomoe and APTX. Seiya has given them a satisfactory, credible explanation for Tenoh Haruka's death, depicting it as an unfortunate accident which occurred when Tenoh experimented with Stinger's modified APTX to improve her recuperative powers while she was taking Ai's painkillers—thus turning what might have been a cold-blooded murder into an unexpected tragedy, whose cause can be blamed on bad luck and the careless victim alone. Slipping into Shinichi's mind with ease, the experienced actor has anticipated and used Shinichi's deductions to his good advantage, converting a defeat into a victory against an intellectually superior opponent in a seemingly hopeless situation.

If this were soccer, it would be a two-zero win for the singer, who hasn't done anything but beholding his surroundings while other people did all the footwork for his acquittal in case he should ever be taken to court. Comparing Gin's cold predator's face and his macho chauvinistic attitude to the intangibly attractive face and charming manners of Ai's current boyfriend, Shinichi can't help but believe that she has replaced her menacing "common-law husband" with a far more pleasant but also far more dangerous man.

x.

* * *

 

A/N: As you've probably noticed, I've merged the shorter chapters into longer ones so that editing them and uploading the edited versions will be less of a pain. I've tried not to create giant chapter, though.

Whenever I post a chapter for the first time, I still prefer short to medium-sized chapters because I can focus on the next scene better after posting what I've already written. Hence I'm still going to upload medium-sized bites, which I'm going to merge into long chapters from time to time.

 

 


	39. Part Four: The wedding... (2)

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**The wedding was…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

The wedding was a sham—a toe-curling, tired fairy tale for dopey boys and girls. The sweet royal couple couldn't content themselves with worshipping their fabled True Love all by themselves (it was bloodcurdlingly creepy how they showed off their stilted couple photos on their walls and desks, deified kitschy mementos of their relationship on their shrine substitutes (all their cupboards and her bedside table!), even filmed each other during candle-lit anniversaries as they stuffed themselves with monstrous cream cakes or her inedible homemade cookies), they also had to dragoon all their friends and acquaintances into celebrating The Unforgettable Grand Day with them at all cost—exactly two years to a day after Three Lights left Japan. 

The Queen—a tiny plain-vanilla candy, who was luxuriously wrapped in gaudy, super-glossy satin embroidered with silver thread, imported white pearls, and rose-studded lace—was now gazing at him with hyperbolic adoration while her King—a gangling, pompous imitation of Kaitou Kid in a white tie dress and a white cape with lavender lining (the sort of fancy ball attire which would have looked sophisticated on Taiki, who was surprisingly agile despite his great height, and stylish on Seiya with his wild looks and raffish air but which only made His Stodgy Royal Highness resemble a banker with pomaded hair and a sad Moonlight Magician fetish)—contemplated him with a more serious but equally idiotic, fond smile on His majestic, complacent face. And both of them were insultingly, though not completely, oblivious to the suffering of the victims of their fancy masquerade.   

"I've seen you in _The Z-files of Detective Boy Holmes…_ " the amber-eyed Calliope (the Greek muse presiding over epic poetry) in front of him purred, wafting Chanel Allure Sensuelle, which she had just sprayed on her neck and both of her wrists once again as if she were trying to rob him of his sense of smell. Rubbing his nostrils to prevent himself from sneezing, as he was allergic to most synthetic fragrances, Yaten cautiously edged away from her and promptly collided with Taiki, who had been thoroughly, inexplicably, immersed in a particularly dull conversation about the dynamic of asteroids. 

"… And you were a divinely beautiful Watson!" Calliope gushed, ignoring Yaten's obvious discomfort. "So sensitive and so polite to boot! It's a shame that other Sherlock Holmes adaptations usually neglect Watson's gentlemanly side!" Flashing him a coy smile, she continued in a conspiratorial tone, "Watson was the most underrated character in canon. That's why you auditioned for the role, right?"

If she were genuinely interested in Yaten and his rendition of Watson, she would have known that no, Yaten didn't audition for the role at all. Yaten made no secret of his dislike for Conan Doyle's Watson, which was the very reason why Yaten had tried his best to bring out Watson's charm, which was alluded to but seldom shown in canon. If he hadn't promised Seiya to put on his most adorable face for the grand occasion, Yaten could even inform Calliope that he believed the original Watson in canon to be a doting fool, a bland sidekick whose straightlaced morals elevated Sherlock Holmes' nimble mind and sharp intellect to godlike height. Conan Doyle himself didn't hold his narrator in high esteem; but in this world where utter stupidity and extreme callousness had become commonplace and where dewy-eyed naiveté was the nicer (though not necessarily better) alternative, Watson's insufferable mediocrity had acquired a quaint, noble shine, which only nostalgia could lend to all things which were hopelessly dated but were now called "vintage". 

"I didn't audition for Young Watson," he put her straight. "Akane-san actually asked me to play the role, which paid so well that I couldn't refuse." Discussing _Detective Boy Holmes_ with Calliope was casting pearls before swine (or before cockroaches, which Yaten hated with passion since he was five), but Yaten still steered his most serene, most lovely smile in the direction of the balcony where Calliope's real object of desire was languishing, staring down at the French garden with an intensity which only love or hate could stimulate (while enduring the vapid chatter of his present companion, a dirty-blonde siren in a grey Fusae "Arielle" fishtail dress). 

"Watson wasn't an underrated character, in my opinion," Seiya, answering to Yaten's silent plea for help after taking Yaten's cue, sidled up to Yaten with the siren in tow and murmured in his dark silky voice, which never failed to put his victims in a trance, "The most underrated character in canon was actually Godfrey Norton…" 

x.

 _To Sherlock Holmes she is always_ the _woman,_ Yaten recited as he bent over the large blank notebook on his lap, into which he was scribbling with a peacock-blue fountain pen and black ink. _I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind._  

For the third time since the crack of dawn, Yaten let his pensive gaze roam about the cramped, dimly lit room before resting it on the polished mahogany desk, where a particularly flattering portrait of Itsuki Alice, the rising star of the jazz scene, whose sonorous mezzo soprano and lush auburn hair had secured her the role of Irene Adler, sat. It was money for jam, saying these lines about Sherlock-Taiki, and Yaten only had to imagine Kakyuu in Itsuki-san's stead.

_He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine the world has seen: but, as a lover, he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer—excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory…_

_Cut!_ Akane-san barked and began to clap, whereupon the crew, which she commanded like Lord Nelson his British fleets, joined in. _You're great, Yaten! I don't think we'll need another take. We must save your beautiful husky voice for the honeymoon scene and move on to our Martini Shot now! Noriko, Yaten, please be ready on the closed set in fifteen minutes. All the other talents can call it a day… except for you two, Seiya, Taiki. Please wait in the Green Room for me! We still need to discuss the scenes at Briony Lodge and Irene Adler's wedding._

 _Break a leg and bring it behind you today_ , Taiki whispered, _and don't bite off Okamachi-kun's head if she touches you inappropriately._

 _Define "inappropriately"!_ Yaten hissed. _There isn't anything on me which she hasn't already pawed!_

To be fair, the girl didn't intentionally take advantage of the occasion to feel him up despite nursing an embarrassing crush on him. It was Takeo-san, the camera operator, whose sneers made the horrible situation unbearable, added to the silly flesh-coloured pouches and pasties and cover-ups, which were supposed to protect their modesty but fell off during the most awkward moments so that both Okamachi Noriko-san and Yaten agreed to make do without them during their nude scenes. Due to Yaten's unbelievable run of bad luck on the set of _Detective Boy Holmes_ , however, Akane-san was so perfectionist that she let Okamachi-san redo every single scene she starred in for a hundred times and also changed her mind regularly after watching the "finished" takes. Hence Okamachi-san and Yaten were now on a closed set again, preparing to grope themselves (in the literal and in the figurative sense) through John Watson and Mary Watson-née-Morstan's honeymoon during the hundred-and-fifty-third take of the opening scene of _A Scandal in Bohemia_ or _The Woman_ (Akane-san hadn't decided which title to use for the seventh episode of her _Detective Boy Holmes_ series yet), while the camera operator was gloating over their plight. The Asshole wasn't only a remarkable talent but was also the only son of their most important sponsor, which was why "his few idiosyncrasies" were to be overlooked if Yaten wanted to keep his role.

For lack of a better religion or cult substitute, teenagers outside Kinmoku Sei, who didn't have lofty utopias to ponder on, worshipped True Love. _Detective Boy Holmes_ , however, was exasperatingly true to canon in the sense that it didn't invent a love interest for Sherlock Holmes at all. Irene Adler provided the romantically inclined audience with a charismatic would-have-been lover, prevented Holmes from developing "softer emotions" for another woman by becoming his unobtainable ideal of a female, which no other woman could ever hope to kick from her pedestal, and changed his misogynist attitudes by eluding him just when he believed to have trapped her with ease. But the platonic Sherlock-Irene dynamic, as charming as it was, didn't supply enough exposed skin to the spoiled modern audience, which was why Yaten—cursing the day he let his two overactive brothers drag him to the audition for _Detective Boy Holmes_ —was now stripping in front of the contemptuous eyes of the camera man.

Inspired by his own strikingly good looks (which could destroy kingdoms and create new world religions, according to Kakyuu), Yaten had prepared to audition for the role of Godfrey Norton while Seiya, who was accustomed to take centre stage, aimed for nothing less than Sherlock Holmes. Taiki, who would have contented himself with a role for which he didn't have to act to make time for yet another monograph on comets, was planing to audition for Mycroft, Sherlock's reclusive older brother. Life had other plans for them, however. No sooner had she laid eyes on Three Lights than Gushiken Akane ("Gushiken-sensei" to lesser mortals and "Akane-san" to her dearest protégés like Igarashi Shizuka and Hino Rei) pointed her imperious index finger at Seiya and demanded: _That one! Unless his acting stinks, I'll have_ him _as Young Moriarty and Godfrey Norton!_

They needed a rakishly beautiful, dark man for Irene Adler's impulsive husband Godfrey Norton—so Akane-san claimed—and giving the same actor a double role by casting him as Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Young Moriarty would be a real treat for the fans. While beauty was the last thing which Yaten lacked and his silver-white hair could be easily dyed black, he looked, in Akane-san's words, "too cute and harmless" for the role. It didn't help that Itsuki Alice, who had just snatched the role of Irene Adler from Okino Yoko (another promising star), was almost taller than Yaten in heels. And Seiya, who liked the idea of taunting "Anokata-papa" and "Anokata-mama" with the fact that he refused to take over their organization but agreed to lead a criminal syndicate in a mainstream live action series, instantly warmed up to Young Moriarty.

Ironically, Taiki ended up playing Young Sherlock Holmes—the main role!—just because Akane-san loved his dramatic voice, his graceful gait, his narrow figure, and his unusual height. Yaten, on the other hand, was forced into the unlikely role of Young Watson, whose blandness Akane-san would like to "downplay by giving him the face of an angel." Seiya, skeptical of the idea that Yaten should play Watson and also apprehensive of Itsuki-san, who had begun to size him up with a certain hunger in her eyes, suggested that Itsuki-san play Mary Watson while Yaten take Irene Adler instead—a role which required a delicate figure and a glamorous feminine face.

Akane-san wasn't keen on giving Seiya's Mr Norton a male Miss Adler, who was also his own brother, however, although the role of Irene didn't require either nude or romantic scenes. And thus—while his two lucky brothers didn't even have to kiss their partners, as Sherlock Holmes was asexual and Godfrey and Irene's unavoidable kiss during the wedding ceremony wasn't shown onscreen and therefore not filmed, much to Itsuki-san's heartache—Yaten, who had always been revolted by all sorts of physical contact with strangers, had to suffer the brutal torture of kissing various actresses throughout the series and doing at least five raunchy love scenes with Mary Watson.

After a whole morning of rolling in the sheets with Okamachi-san, whose efforts at serious acting was once again hampered by her infatuation with Yaten and her anger at Takeo-san and who, as a result, was dripping with sweat, soaking Yaten's freshly washed hair with her nauseatingly sweet perfume and her personal body scent, Yaten dragged himself into the Green Room, where Seiya compassionately rubbed his back and Taiki showed him "Anokata-mama's" latest message. After Three Lights informed their parents that they had landed high-paying jobs and were finally able to take Kakyuu with them, the answer had been a casual, outright dismissal. Kakyuu was the Organization's princess, who was accustomed to luxury which nonentities like Three Lights could never afford. This second message was to remind them that even the main roles in a live action series didn't suffice. Kakyuu wasn't allowed to leave Kinmoku Sei before Seiya, Taiki, and Yaten became "real international celebrities" and earned enough to make sure that their foster sister would lead a comfortable life.

 _Don't worry about her, she isn't lonely_. _We've bought her a few dogs to keep her company after you three left: a Miniature Poodle, a Border Collie, and a Doberman Pinscher._

 _Are the three dogs supposed to replace us?_ Yaten asked in disbelief, whereupon Seiya shot him a pitying glance.

Their parents had always had a peculiar sense of humour, which wasn't always fair and nice, Taiki observed. And the dog analogy was, admittedly, unambiguous even though it was neither useful nor fitting.

 _Why am_ I _the Miniature Poodle?_ Yaten screeched, so enraged at the mental image that his famed husky voice rose to a shrill falsetto.

 _Because I'm definitely_ not _the Miniature Poodle._ Taiki smirked as he demonstratively stretched out his endlessly long legs. At least he was modest enough not to flaunt the fact that the most intelligent dog of the three was the Border Collie. _And after the incidents with the cockroaches, the rats, the wild cats, the crows, the hyenas, and the male wolverine they smuggled from Canada into the country just to "test" us, we all know who of us is supposed to be the Doberman Pinscher._

x.

_Looks like piss, whose colour has been enhanced! Smells like piss scented with orange blossoms and rose perfume! I haven't ever tasted piss yet, but I bet it can't taste worse than this…_

Despite himself, Yaten doubled over and moaned in pain as Seiya's elbow and fist connected with his stomach and his chest, and he would immediately have paid his disrespectful little brother back if Taiki (the traitor who had always sided with Seiya while pretending to be impartial!) hadn't caught his arm.

_They pay us a fortune just to promote the drink. Stop whining and do your job, Yaten!_

The three of them were leaning against the stone balustrade of the balcony of one of the many identically picturesque, identically decaying palazzos in Venice, smirking into the cameras while their long, smooth ponytails were flying in the late autumn wind. Above them, white gulls and doves were circling, ready to swoop down at any moment to devour the crumbs on the breakfast table, on which a rich assortment of wine bottles, tea pots, plates of pastries, and bowls of potato chips were artfully arranged around a balanced composition of colourful Murano glasses, painted luxury bone china, and white linen napkins—all rose-tinted and silhouetted against the background of the setting sun…

Unsurpringly, Three Lights devoted their whole attention to their garish neon-blue, neon-yellow, and shocking-violet cans of Galaxia's Golden Honeyed Ambrosia, blatantly ignoring the gorgeous bottle of mahogany-red Moscatel sherry, from which Seiya, in real life, would have stolen a sip before seating himself at the table.

With a smile which would accelerate global warming and a sigh which would haunt their female fans for years, Three Lights opened the cans in unison and knocked back the beverage, which tasted exactly like chilled piss would taste, in Yaten's opinion. But what should he say—good arguments naturally ran out when the pay was twenty times higher than what they had been paid for Galaxia's Golden Sunkissed Buns. There was, after all, only one woman to him, who eclipsed and predominated the whole of her sex; and that woman wasn't the late Irene Adler.

x.

On a free Sunday, the night before they started filming the scenes at "Briony Lodge" (Irene Adler's home) and Irene Adler and Godfrey Norton's wedding in the church, Yaten was idly lounging on the roof of a skyscraper, watching Seiya and Taiki sneak up on a team of MI6 agents, who had caught Alan, one of their parents' best mediators, and who were trying to squeeze all the information on their parents and Kakyuu out of him. The first three agents, who hadn't expected anyone to climb through a window on the twenty-fifth floor, were knocked out by Seiya before they could react while the fourth and the fifth, who had been fast enough to whip out their guns, keeled over the moment Taiki's tranquilizing darts pricked their necks. Bored by the eternal inactivity (the natural consequence of his two brothers' tiresome excellence at close combat), Yaten—without letting go of his sniper rifle—proceeded to rehearse the dialogues for the following day.

_"I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler."_

How did Akane-san get the idea to cast Yaten out of all people as John Watson when Irene Adler would have been the perfect role for him, Yaten once again wondered, eyeing the large heart on his left ring finger, which was blue a few hours ago but was now shimmering in a pale violet hue. On the other hand, Yaten knew that, in real life, he didn't share many of Irene Adler's character traits. Yaten might really look like a "lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for" (and that from Holmes' mouth!), but Seiya resembled Irene Adler much more with his fast reactions and impulsive decisions, his penchant for disguises, his singing, his generosity to complete strangers, and his overall cheekiness. If they had been cast according to their characteristics and their skills—Yaten mused—Taiki would have been cast as Moriarty or Mycroft, Seiya would have been cast as Sherlock Holmes, Jefferson Hope, or Irene Adler, and Yaten would have been cast as Moriarty's right-hand man Sebastian Moran, the crack shot. But then again, now that he repeated the dialogues between Holmes and Watson before the pair set off for Briony Lodge, Yaten had to admit that there were certain similarities between him and Watson.

 _"You don't mind breaking the law?"_ Taiki, who had just joined Yaten and who, well accustomed to reading Yaten's mind, immediately guessed what Yaten was doing, recited, casually slipping into his role of Sherlock Holmes as he helped Yaten wrap up the rifle and pack it into the case where he (Taiki, not Yaten) usually kept his bass guitar.

 _"Not in the least."_ Yaten gazed up at him in indignation.

_"Not running a chance of arrest?"_

_"Not in a good cause."_

_"Oh, the cause is excellent!"_

_"Then I am your man."_

_"I was sure that I might rely on you,"_ Taiki smiled, raising a meaningful brow at the ring, which Yaten, who liked high-class jewellery, was wearing. _But you shouldn't grow too attached to your colour-changing sapphire since you'll have to part from it tomorrow unless you can talk Seiya into wooing Itsuki-kun for your sake. Let's go, Seiya and Alan are waiting!_

x.

* * *

 

A/N: As everyone has probably noticed, this chapter contained dialogues from Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia."

 

 


	40. Part Four: From the distance...

 

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**From the distance…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

From the distance, her red parasol looked like a round blood stain on the freshly fallen snow. The impression was strengthened by her red cuffed trousers and her long transparent red skirt over her red ankle boots. Like Seiya, she had a weakness for whimsical designs and vibrant colours, and Yaten noticed in admiration that she had printed gold kinmokusei blossoms on her long-sleeved shirt and embroidered her cuffs with her original kinmokusei design.

The parasol moved aside when they arrived at the white-painted bench, revealing her snow-white face and her solemn reddish-brown eyes, which lit up when she spotted them. Kakyuu had barely escaped albinism, but even if she were an albino, she would be the loveliest case of albinism with which nature would ever have graced humankind. She was wearing glossy lipstick in a shade of red whose intensity and brightness would look trashy on any other pale red-headed woman, but she pulled it off so well that a stranger could believe that she had been born with those poppy-red lips.

"Taiki, Yaten, Seiya!" Considerate as Kakyuu was, she called them in the reversed order to the order of her personal preference, as always—but both Taiki and Yaten were past the stage of petty jealousy. Seiya had always been her favourite but had also always played hard to get ever since she came back from her private school, had danced with her and fed her with the snacks he had filched from the kitchen but distanced himself from her whenever he sensed that she grew too attached. Yaten had the theory that women loved Seiya especially because they always desired what they couldn't possess. Their mother was no exception in that aspect…

When "Anokata-mama" told Yaten about her decision to ask Seiya to marry Kakyuu and take over the Organization, Yaten pointed out that one shouldn't keep a tiger in a cage. If only she had listened to Yaten and ask Taiki instead, Three Lights would never have left. Yaten would have taken care of Kakyuu—even married her if marriage was really what Kakyuu wanted; Taiki would have led the Organization and been second to none as a leader just because Taiki excelled at anything Taiki wanted to excel at; and Seiya would have supported them but left whenever he felt like leaving to go wherever he pleased just to return to them when least expected. He was like an untamed animal that had to roam freely to live, and tying such a person to an Organization and perhaps even to a wife would be just as cruel as holding a wild falcon captive. But "Anokata-mama", like most women, was too much in love with Seiya's easy, happy nature to see how unreasonable her demands were.

There was no awkwardness between them despite Three Lights' long absence, and the customary hugs and kisses came naturally and were even warmer than usual. She was surprised that their parents agreed to let them see her all of a sudden, Kakyuu said when they all went inside—and Seiya, who always knew how to stick to the essential information and omit all the unpleasant details, told her that they owed this rendezvous to the invaluable Alan.

"And he could persuade them to change their minds just like that?" she asked, eyeing them all with healthy skepticism. "Without receiving any… service in return?"

Despite her angelic kindness, Kakyuu wasn't easily deceived, and Yaten, who despised lies, gave in to pressure and informed her that they had caught five snooping MI6-agents and received five hours with her as a reward, much to Taiki's disapproval.

Kakyuu looked taken aback but didn't comment. They all knew that the MI6 agents awaited a less-than-desirable fate—but family was, after all, family. Even if it weren't for Kakyuu, Three Lights would have to save their parents from the secret services. They owed nothing to foreign intelligence organizations and their nosy, spying, meddling agents while they owed their lives to their (admittedly eccentric) parents, who had raised them and cared for them until they were strong and rebellious enough to go out into the world and hold their own. Perhaps they were really crows—fledglings that had flown out of Kinmoku Sei to find their place in the world. But when their parents needed help in the old nest, the independent, grown-up birds would come home.

The Organization was going to have a new head scientist, Kakyuu told them after her first cup of jasmine- and rose-scented green tea. Since the mad professor who was also in charge of Infinity was unreliable and not particularly committed to the Silver Bullet project, they had chosen a young prodigy instead: an extremely hard-working, absolutely brilliant girl, who was also the daughter of the couple who had discovered the ingredients for the drug which could turn most of the world's population into children.

"She is two years younger than me and has already finished her studies abroad. They say she is the smartest scientist they've ever had: even before they gave her her parents' notebooks, she had already deduced their findings on her own. Within a year, she had accomplished what a whole generation of scientists didn't manage. She doesn't know about her promotion yet since our parents want to test her for another year. If she doesn't disappoint them, they're going to hand the whole project over to her."

If this girl—whose name Kakyuu didn't know—managed to create the Silver Bullet, it would be the equivalent of finding the philosopher's stone! She would find the cure for all human problems and help humankind take an irreversible step towards becoming angels! The Organization was much better prepared than she had thought—Kakyuu admitted. They had already worked out a very sensible way of organizing society after the revolution. Four hours of work interspersed with a long break after each hour for every adult on four days of the week were enough to give every human on earth a secure and comfortable life. If most people in the world were children and the remaining adults worked efficiently together, using the technology and the knowledge we already had for healing and progress instead of wars and selfish indulgence, humans could live forever—without the perpetual pain they inflicted on each other and themselves and all the evils from Pandora's Box, which nature or—to put it poetically—God or the gods (depending on how many deities you wanted to believe in) had unleashed on them.

"They're searching for a good game programmer to develop a software simulating the daily life after the revolution and all the possible problems which could arise. There is Itakura Suguru, who is very competent and compulsively neat—the perfect man for the job. He is known to have worked on a similar simulation game, which he could upgrade for the Organization. But he didn't want to join the Organization when he was asked because he didn't believe in the idea—claiming that an eternal childhood would be a danger to humanity. They're searching for another game programmer now although I fear that they will simply force him to cooperate if they can't find a substitute." She gazed at Taiki in mild reproach. "They would have asked _you_ , of course, if it had been possible. You would have developed the programme in a flash and learn the complete Shakespeare by heart at the same time. But our parents are so extremely proud—just like you three! After you refused to come back although you were starving and they practically begged you on their knees to return, they would rather let their Organization go down than abase themselves for a second time!"

She was right, of course, because without his stubbornness and his pride, it would have taken Yaten less than a month to crawl home. Yaten had braced himself for the worst, but the world outside Kinmoku Sei was even worse than expected. It wasn't danger or pain or even the hunger but the lack of an alternative to the many tyrannies of this rigidly organized, bureaucratic world, which slowly drove both Taiki and him into depression. The circus was barely bearable, but the idol life was even worse. Unlike Seiya, who broke every rule in the book and got away with it, Yaten and Taiki were saddled with the unmanageable schedule their agent had set for them. Apart from doing real work like studying scores, choreographies, screenplays, and practising and rehearsing until they dropped, they had to waste time on senseless tasks like hopping from one TV show to the next, giving interviews, signing autographs, and making small talk with girls who would never have gone to even one concert of theirs if they had been old and ugly. On the other hand, the idol business paid well whereas staying independent and refusing to play along would have meant to slave away in badly paid, soul-crushing jobs in which the bosses and colleagues weren't more likable than the directors and cameramen they had to work with. Comfort-loving as he was, Yaten couldn't say that he would prefer living on the streets either. What he had learned was that you either starved or joined this vicious circle of exploiting others and being exploited in return—and that the people outside Kinmoku Sei were aware of it but accepted it as one of the inevitabilities of life.

Even in most movies and live action series, the rise of the heroes were, in a way, just the successful corruption of innocence and the adaptation of the individual to the society they had to live in. Yaten had almost grown fond of _The Z-files of Detective Boy Holmes_ because Holmes managed to make use of the system and succeeded but never sold out. But even Holmes needed his famous seven-percent solution to "escape from the commonplace of existence"—from this bleak, cynical, worthless world, for which Three Lights had left Kinmoku Sei.

"We agree with Itakura that staying children wouldn't do humanity any good," Yaten told Kakyuu. "People don't become less nasty and dumb just because they are pint-sized. Most children are just as mean as their adult counterparts with the exception that they don't multiply."

"Do you really think so?" Kakyuu fixed him with her serious, straight-lashed eyes, which were almost ruby-red in the evening light. "Even if that were true, we would have solved the problem of overpopulation, which has become so serious that humankind will become extinct in the next few hundred years if we don't discover at least one—preferably two or three—other planets to live on. We're living on borrowed time, depleting all natural resources, contaminating and destroying earth, and creating the sort of waste which won't go away in the next millions of years. People just dump and bury and forget their trash and happily burden future generations with a legacy which is equivalent to a death sentence. Children are always innocent victims of the same adults who should be protecting and supporting them! When they grow up, they'll receive a very limited time to deal with all these sheer insoluble problems their grandparents and parents had left behind. The Silver Bullet would stop this circle of reproduction and death and buy humankind time to clean up the mess of the last century."

She was too optimistic—Yaten pointed out—since she seemed to assume that the people who stayed adults after the Silver Bullet had turned most of the world's population into children would be better than the adults who were populating earth right now. Apart from all the catastrophes which could happen and kill all the children, who were defenseless and who would depend on a bunch of adults who weren't even their real parents, conflicts among the adults could escalate after a few decades. In a few centuries, the new world wouldn't be much better than the world we're living in now—with the exception that the Silver Bullet had turned dying into an option which only depressed people ready to commit suicide would choose. The world would be overpopulated again, this time with children and dumb, selfish, eternally young people who refused to age and die naturally while the number of people who want to reproduce would pose an ever-present, mortal danger to humankind.

"That's the perfect scenario for Armageddon, if you ask me! You're placing all your hopes on human intelligence, a simulation game, and common sense. But if people aren't sensible now, they aren't going to be sensible just because they can live forever. Most people don't learn anything without being forced. An eternal life would only make humans more indulgent and even more entitled to their privileges than they are now."

"That's why the people who can stay adults need to be carefully chosen from the codename members who are competent and can be trusted. Only the incorruptible, intelligent people who honestly believe in the greater cause and who are loyal to the Organization are allowed to keep their maturity."

"It's hard to manage a whole world's population of children with those people—even with all the knowledge and the technology we already have," Taiki mused. "You will need a certain amount of specialists, who are great at teamwork, to manage and maintain the machinery, not the mention the administrative work and all the competent staff you will need. Such a tightly controlled, large community with so many children can only thrive when there are no natural disasters and everyone is on the same page. If it's perfectly managed and your game programmer has succeeded to simulate all the possible scenarios and worked out the solutions in advance, the first years after the revolution will be bearable enough to create a stable system."

"We have the best people on our side," Kakyuu claimed. "And the most promising prodigies receive their education here, at Infinity."

"But then the amount of children who are allowed to grow up—and there will always be children who want to grow up!—need to be carefully matched with the amount of those who have already grown up and were capable of assimilating into the community. Any accidental death of a specialist can be fatal to the whole community, and the absence of a natural death is, just like Yaten said, a new serious problem, which humankind will have to face. It will end in an extremely despotic tyranny with enforced 'suicides' unless humankind can really escape to another planet. I'm not saying that it's impossible, but I think it's improbable that humankind will survive such a plunge into the cold water without a very lucky mutation or an extremely thorough education and a perfectly managed life. It would leave no space for personal experiments and failures, no freedom to explore one's individuality. Such a life would negate all the values we believe in and snuff out the chance of finding personal happiness. The way to this utopia would be paved with corpses because you can't plan such a coup and a revolution without sacrificing innocents. Considering such promising prospects, it almost seems easier to use the knowledge and the technology we have now to improve living conditions and give everyone a good education."

"So that all people would suddenly make sensible decisions, which result in win-win situations for everyone, or make sacrifices for the sake of the common good?" Kakyuu gave him a sad, ironic smile. "If all people were like you, humankind wouldn't have any problems at all—but most people aren't interested in anything which requires serious brainwork. They don't care about the future of humanity or even the future of their own children. People like you are so rare that they can barely survive without stooping to the level of the society they're forced to cope with."

She leaned back and sighed, and Yaten suddenly discovered why she always looked so intriguing to him. Her face was young and possessed the doll-like beauty which was so popular in Asian cultures but her deep eyes were old and wise, like the eyes of a witch whose youth had been frozen in time.

"Of course you three are going to make a difference in the world and change it one step at a time," she gently proceeded, "but will the change ever be great enough and the step you take wide enough to stop this rapid downward spiral? I admit that the Organization uses its power to force peace and a prolonged childhood and a sustainable lifestyle on the world; and for the next decades, humankind will be deprived of the right to reproduce so that we can let accidents reduce the population until it's manageable. But any political and social system has failed its citizens—and even the most democratic, liberal countries are moving towards total governmental control. If you have to choose from all the possible alternatives, a comfortable, relatively secure life and a long childhood, possibly even an eternal life, under a benevolent monarchy led by people who truly believe in equality between the sexes and races and who support freedom and individuality as long as you don't endanger others is certainly much more desirable than all the racist and sexist religions and hypocritical political systems which are currently in power." She impulsively grabbed Seiya's hand, as Seiya had remained silent throughout the whole discussion. "I love freedom just as much as you do, but I agree with our parents that dealing with it should be learned and that people who are less lucky than us don't have the time and the opportunity to learn—not in the world in which they're living now!"

She paused to flash Akatsuki-san, the rugged bodyguard who had just brought them their dinner wagon, a warm smile and distributed the bowls and plates with the regal gestures of a princess, who had seen them and internalized them from the moment she learned to walk and speak, and Yaten had the vision that she would make a formidable queen. Feeling his pensive gaze on her face, she turned and affectionately rubbed his arm before she made the announcement which would change their lives, "I've watched your advertisements and tried Galaxia's Sunkissed Buns and the drinks—and I've come to the conclusion that if we continue like this, there would be nothing left which money couldn't buy but also no food of any nutritional value left to normal people. We could wait until all people—especially those in power, who don't feel the agony of the people at the bottom of the social ladder—come to their senses. But by that time, if that time ever comes, there would be no duck left in the lake, no fish left in the sea. After seeing what you three had to do to 'make it' in the world, I've come to the conclusion that the Organization is the last hope we have." She leaned forward to study Taiki with her unique red eyes. "We're so close to developing the Silver Bullet, but traitors and the secret services have wrecked the health of our parents, who really need to retire in ten years or less unless they want to work themselves into the grave. I'm going to leave Kinmoku Sei to see the world with you three after you become international celebrities. But I'm not going to abandon the Organization and the people who have given me life and raised me!"

"In short, you're going to lead the Organization!" Seiya impatiently cut in. He had been observing them without saying a word—an indication that he was too distressed to speak.

She nodded and gave him an apologetic smile, well aware that she had just shattered his dream of a free, unattached life. "You once said that you would always protect me—but I want to protect the people I love as well. Since you refused to lead the group for reasons which I can understand, I've accepted the responsibility in your stead. I haven't met the codename members yet, but our parents have already made a will and saved it in Pandora's Box in case something goes wrong." Since Seiya didn't utter a sound of approval, she took a sip of the champagne Taiki had poured all of them and sighed. "I still have a lot to learn—I don't even know how the codename members are named and ranked yet, but I'm sure that I can depend on you three and that we can change the world for the better. In ten years or less, when our new head scientist has completed the Silver Bullet and you've shown me around, Seiya, I'm going to meet up with the seven crows and accept my duties as the Organization's new 'Anokata'!"

x.

* * *

 

**That was a terrifically…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

"That was a terrifically smart move of them," Taiki murmured after Kakyuu had left for the bathroom. "We'll all be working for the Organization now, whether we like it or not."

"I don't think it was _their_ idea," Yaten darkly objected although he agreed that their parents had sneakily made use of the situation. Kakyuu had always been much too kind, much too eager to absorb all the suffering she had heard and read about to augment it and treat it as her own pain. Her limitless, universal compassion and their parents' fierce altruism were probably the reasons why Seiya, Taiki, and Yaten were unapologetically individualistic and selfish. Seiya and Taiki might genuinely believe that humankind would eventually evolve into something better with time (Yaten couldn't tell what his two brothers really thought since both of them were accomplished liars), but Yaten knew that, as far as he was concerned, humankind might as well die out in one or two hundred years to make space for another species. In all honesty, it would be better for earth—as if earth really mattered in this vast universe!

Foreigners often thought that Yaten was xenophobic; homosexuals believed him to be homophobic; and women claimed that he was misogynist. And they were all dead wrong because Yaten didn't despise any select group of people but all humankind in its entirety. Kakyuu always refused to believe that Yaten's attitude expressed precisely what Yaten felt, but there were scarcely any people in the world whom Yaten could tolerate and only a handful of people whom he loved deeply. As long as those people were fine, Yaten couldn't care less about the rest. He also had a dark suspicion that humans couldn't suffer eternal peace and happiness and that, if the sparkling, rosy biblical version of paradise existed, it would cause terminal boredom and ruin the poor souls and angels who were doomed to stay there.

The problem with life—Yaten observed—was that it wasn't half as complicated as most people wanted to believe. After all, living was (in Taiki's words) just like gardening. Just put the right flowers into the right soil and watch the weather so that you were prepared for droughts and storms! Like people, flowers had their strengths and their weaknesses, their little quirks one simply had to accept if one wanted to help them grow and bloom. Some flowers like dahlias were gorgeous and fragrance-free; others, like kinmokusei, were inconspicuous, with an irresistible, unforgettable scent. Orchids—so tough and beautiful—were easily drowned; but forget-me-nots and Japanese primroses loved the rain.

And of course there were always bugs and mildew, decaying roots and rotting stems and weeds… Admittedly, Yaten and Taiki, who were lazy, always let Seiya deal with the weeds.

"What do _you_ think about this?" Taiki asked Seiya, as expected. Taiki's biggest problem was his intellect, which forced him to study a situation from a hundred different angles and made him talk himself out of his own decisions just to consider them again later. Seiya ended up making decisions for Taiki whenever Taiki didn't care enough to decide for himself. And his role in the future of humankind was, even to Taiki, too abstract and insignificant to ponder.

"If _you_ had a drug which could give you an eternal life by taking years off your body without endangering your mind and your life—what would you do with it?" Seiya asked instead of replying.

"If it doesn't turn me into a child and wipe out my memories? Take it, I suppose," Taiki said, what once again proved to Yaten that he never knew what Taiki was thinking. Now Taiki was probably imagining the dizzying amount of books he could study or the endless lists of poems he could write during his eternal life. There were billions of computer systems to be written and hacked, myriads of inventions to be made and dismissed, zillions of stars and comets to discover…

"Same here," Seiya admitted before he fell silent again. It had been implied that the Organization would create a version of the Silver Bullet which didn't automatically shrink all adults but gave them eternal youth; and even though they had discussed the advantages and disadvantages of an eternal life for humankind in general, they hadn't taken the idea seriously enough to consider its consequences for their own future.

"I wouldn't want everybody to live forever!" Yaten shuddered at the thought of an eternally young Takeo the Asshole, whom Yaten would rather see dead. "But an eternal life for me and the people I can stand doesn't sound too bad."

The truth was that once the Silver Bullet was found, it would change the world forever. Humankind would either adapt to the changes it brought or die out. Until then, wars would be fought, and empires would rise and fall…

"Right now, only one girl and one mad scientist are capable of developing the drug," Taiki pointed out, whereupon Seiya, who immediately got what Taiki meant, shot him an amused smile.

"The psychopathic solution would be to eliminate both of them and save ourselves the hassle of pampering humankind," Yaten, who liked to verbalize his thoughts, spelled out what Taiki had suggested. "Anything is better than being a slave for all eternity!"

"For all eternity?" Seiya gave him a skeptical look. "There is no place in her utopia for people like me!" He would rather commit suicide before letting other people decide when and how many children he was going to have. Next they were going to tell him when he was going to have sex and with whom.

They all gazed into the distance for a moment to visualize the situation and then gave up.

"Of course I could always start a rebellion—but since I couldn't ever do that to _her_ , I'd just shoot myself!"

The grossly risible mental image of Seiya trying to usurp Kakyuu or shooting himself brought a smile to Taiki's and Yaten's lips; and all of them touched glasses and drank up their champagne before Taiki casually asked, "When?"

"When we take out the prodigy and the professor?" Yaten, who was feeling drowsy because he missed his afternoon nap, yawned.

"Before or after taking the Silver Bullet ourselves? And stealing a few samples for our parents and for Kakyuu, of course!"

"And for Igarashi-san, Shizuka-san, and Akane-san," Seiya added.

"Why Akane-san?" It was only natural that Seiya felt indebted to their agent and his daughter, and his generosity had always been troublesome at best. But Seiya and their headstrong director of _Detective Boy Holmes_ had been locking horns since they started to film Young Moriarty's first appearance; and while Yaten was the opinion that it was only Akane-san's way of showing affection, Seiya looked irritated and hurt by her barrage of insults, whose harshness rivaled Yaten's whenever he was fed up with Seiya.

"I've grown accustomed to her ear-splitting screams." Seiya shrugged. "No one can shout 'Se-e-i-ya' like she can!"

Taiki, who didn't like distractions, stoically focussed on his question. Before or after the official handover—which definitely won't be smooth, considering the state of the Organization at the moment? Before or after the revolution?

"After!" Yaten decided. "Three-thirds of the world's population would be wiped out by then, which would solve the problem of overpopulation for a while."

It was the grim humour of the desperate fly who had been caught in a spider's trap—as they all knew that none of them would ever betray Kakyuu… On the other hand, all of them had felt this compulsion to protect her ever since they were toddlers, not because she was a pretty girl or because they thought she was weak (she could aim almost as well as Yaten and once beat Taiki in fencing during practice) but because she was so selfless and tender-hearted in such a self-defeating, suicidal way. Kakyuu wasn't only so noble and good that she could never survive by herself—she also thought that most people were ignorant and careless but had the capacity to be as kind as her.

Just like Taiki had difficulty in comprehending that true stupidity existed and "depression" was to Seiya an abstract word, Kakyuu firmly believed that all humans and animals were essentially good—a preposterous philosophy, which even years of living with Yaten couldn't exorcise out of her. Apparently, they would have to protect Kakyuu from herself again, just like that time when she threw herself in front of Seiya to save the wolverine, whom Seiya had tried to fight off with the sword and the morning star from their father's medieval weapon collection.

"What have you three been talking about?" Kakyuu, who had just returned from the bathroom, asked. She had removed the pins from the high buns on both sides of her head, and her smooth reddish-brown hair was spilling over her shoulders down to her back and her hips, where it brushed against Yaten's hand when she sat down beside him. She smelled of her familiar kinmokusei fragrance, of pure sweet osmanthus with a barely noticeable whiff of roses, mingled with the natural scent of her skin; and Yaten felt so homesick that he could rest his head on her lap and stay there until the world ended.

"We briefly considered shooting your two best scientists," Seiya informed her with misplaced honesty, "preferably after the completion of the Silver Bullet so that we all can take it and be together forever!"

"You know, Seiya…" Kakyuu shook her pretty head and gravely looked from one foster brother to the next. "I'd be less concerned about your jokes if I didn't know you so well."

x.

* * *

 

**The sun had already gone down…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

The sun had already gone down when they left the cafeteria of Infinity, which put any five-star restaurant to shame with its dreamy scenery and gorgeous cuisine, its precious antique decor and its supreme comfort. Apparently, Professor Tomoe treated his prodigies like little dukes and duchesses. Pity that Three Lights couldn't apply for Infinity because it was sponsored by the Organization!

The night was cold but clear—and the four of them went for a stroll in the garden while fifty bodyguards were scattered all over the place like black flower petals. Perfectly timed for Kakyuu's visit, all the students of Infinity were locked up in the music hall, studying the choreography for the obligatory annual ballet performance. A violinist and a pianist were playing Ravel (Ravel's "Tzigane", Taiki reminded Yaten, who had forgotten the name of the piece) with impressive virtuosity and great panache, true to the piece's gypsyesque, romantic air. Yaten, distracted by Kakyuu, couldn't care less about why they were playing "Tzigane", but Seiya, who was interested in all kinds of dances, guessed that the Infinity prodigies were studying the Balanchine choreography to Ravel's famous concert rhapsody.

"Are you going to watch the ballet?" Yaten asked Kakyuu, who was hanging on his arm. Although she was still here, the impending parting already cast a deep gloom over the desolate winter landscape, which was barely illuminated by the distant light from the curtained windows of Infinity's music hall and the starry sky. She would love to watch the performance, Kakyuu said, but their parents didn't allow her to go out for fear that she could be abducted or assassinated by a traitor.

"You don't like my decision to lead the Organization," she observed, addressing all of them although her eyes were glued to Seiya, whose hand she was holding.

He didn't think it was a good idea despite her good intentions, Seiya admitted, but since they still had a few years to change her mind, he didn't worry too much about the future. His immediate goal was to become world-famous and so filthy rich that their parents ran out of excuses why she couldn't leave Kinmoku.

"You don't believe that my plan will work?"

He doubted that anyone was able to develop the Silver Bullet very soon—at least not without unexpected adverse side effects and serious risks to the people who ingested it. But if the Silver Bullet existed, he would rather see it in her hands and support her Organization than leave it to the government or some corrupt institution.

"I only didn't expect that you've pictured our future like this—leading a syndicate which is already falling apart to fight for a utopia which I don't believe in! I trust you—and I think you can do this in theory… if most people were good! But in practice, you'll be assassinated by a few codename members with high aspirations and the Organization will turn into a real criminal syndicate before it's brought down or split into different factions. Our parents rule like tyrants of Genghis Khan's caliber to contain the traitors and the Chicago members. I don't know how you will handle those gangsters if you can't even hurt a mosquito!"

"The female mosquitos consume blood for their eggs. It's in their nature to draw blood! I can't blame them for it."

"I don't blame them for it either—I kill them before they can bite me. And you can't blame me for killing them before they draw _your_ blood because that's in my nature! I can already see myself shooting half of the Organization's codename members because they don't accept the handover or try to overthrow you afterwards. It's not the life I wanted to lead! All I wanted was to be free to do whatever I liked and go anywhere I wanted to go—preferably with Taiki, Yaten, and you!"

She wouldn't ever persuade him into joining the Organization or keep him from doing what he wanted, Kakyuu attempted to appease him. The four of them would always stay together—the Organization wouldn't ever change anything about that fact. They were, after all, d'Artagnan and the three musketeers! Even the musketeers had their ideological disagreements, but they supported each other—even in the last book of the last sequel when they went their separate ways and fought on different sides…

"Every Organization has traitors and moles and rebels—but you can't imagine how many people follow us voluntarily because they believe in our cause and a better future. I know that a revolution will cost many lives—but even more people will suffer and die if we do nothing." For the first time, a tinge of resentment crept into her voice. "I'm not going to curtail your freedom in any way—as if I could do it even if I tried! You've always done whatever you wanted. You only lose to your own temper, Seiya!"

In the end, they agreed to differ. Seiya was the opinion that, while Kakyuu wouldn't limit his freedom, she would restrict the freedom of people like him by shrinking them to the size of a toddler and trying to wipe out—or, to use their parents' words, "reset"—their personalities. Kakyuu retorted that, in many corners of the world, adults had less choices than the children in her utopia. They were still holding hands when they argued, but she had let go of Yaten's arm to gesticulate, as usual.

x.

At the fountain, Seiya let go of her hand to light a cigarette—a habit he had acquired for the role of Young Moriarty—and Kakyuu, thus abandoned, took the arm Taiki offered her. Yaten contented himself with walking by her side and listening to her talk. In love, feelings weren't always perfectly synchronized, and there was always someone who cared less and someone who cared more.

One always suffered when one was too attached to the beloved—when in one's mind, love was linked to fears and selfish desires, which led to excessive demands and needy behaviour. Most people clung to rituals, traditions, institutions, and even superstitions in a desperate attempt to foster a false sense of security, but Seiya, Yaten, and Taiki scorned futile hope and chose to let go instead. They preferred to take love as it was—a state of being which was best when it wasn't forced, or a miracle which happened accidentally and couldn't be held on to forever. They were fine with the situation that they all loved Kakyuu, each in his own way; and if she loved Seiya in a more romantic manner than she loved Taiki and Yaten, she was intelligent enough not to let it affect them by rubbing it in.

How was the idol life, Kakyuu inquired. Did you meet new interesting people? Are there any girls? And then, as if in passing, "Do you have any girlfriends, Seiya?"

"Tons of girls!" Yaten exclaimed and—on seeing Kakyuu's horrified gaze—corrected himself, "I mean we see droves of girls every day, not that we have any girlfriends! They've turned chasing us into an adventure sport, and we run as far as we can when we spot them. Seiya is always in disguise unless our agent fetches us with the limousine. He has learned to change clothes so fast it's scary to watch!"

Seiya feared girls like other people feared spiders and lizards, and Yaten doubted that his attitude to women would change very soon. Girls fell head over heels in love with Seiya at first or second sight and abandoned all sense of logic and decency as if they had been fed an overdose of a love potion, which had on him the opposite effect. The more they chased him, the faster he fled. Yaten would find it hilarious to watch if it weren't such a damn nuisance!

Going anywhere with Seiya meant to run into lovestruck girls even when they were in disguise, Taiki informed Kakyuu. Women were drawn to him like desperate moths during their suicidal dive towards the fire. The source of their attraction was just as mysterious as the moths' kamikaze flight since he could swear that Seiya neither said nor did anything to encourage them.

"So your first single was dedicated to me?" Kakyuu asked without coquetry. Seiya had not even tried to disguise the similarity between her and the girl in the lyrics, and it was impossible not to draw the parallel between the story of the protagonists and their present situation.

"Of course!" Seiya was visibly puzzled about why Kakyuu had asked him about girls all of a sudden. "I've never dated anyone or even answered a private call." There was absolutely no time at all to get to know anyone beyond the trivial small talk during the parties and events he was expected to attend. Even if he weren't practising like a maniac from sunrise to midnight, stealing time to take a walk or a nap after lunch to stay sane, he wouldn't be interested in meeting girls. "Although I really like the fans, I only sing for you! I can't wait until you're free so that the musketeers will be complete. What would Athos, Porthos, and Aramis be without their d'Artagnan?"

Their agent had asked Seiya to stress the romance in the songs and alter the lyrics a bit, for platonic love had gone out of fashion centuries ago and didn't sell well. A few romantic images had been added, allusions to a more physical longing had been made, a few words had been replaced. It was the sort of misunderstanding which Yaten and Taiki should immediately clear; but when they saw Kakyuu's smile, neither of them were able to inflict such cruelty.

x.

Seiya, Taiki, and Yaten—the puppies—were fine, Kakyuu told Taiki when Taiki asked her about her new pets. "Yaten seems capable of reading my mind and always stays by my side, eager to learn whatever I show him. He can already dance and do a few circus tricks like barking the multiplication table and rolling a barrel." Mercifully, she avoided calling the dog "poodle" as if she knew how little Yaten appreciated their parents' homage to his fastidious grooming habits. "But I think Seiya's and Taiki's names should be swapped! Seiya is very calm and smart—he obeys all the commands I give him right away and isn't only the perfect guard dog but also the ideal companion. Taiki—the Border Collie—is a nightmare by comparison! He 'herds' the other dogs and our bodyguards, nips at any foot and leg he can find, even steals food from the kitchen. No one, not even our mother, can manage him, and I might have to give him away to a shepherd so that he can work. If I don't do it soon enough and he becomes too cocky and stubborn for that, I'll have to let him roam the isle freely until he turns feral or is killed by one of the wild animals our parents imported to 'test' you three."

They kissed on parting—only Yaten kissed her on the lips while Taiki pecked her on the temple and Seiya's lips barely grazed her cheek—and the Organization's princess prepared to be escorted home as stealthily as she had been brought to Infinity. Before she stepped into the car, Yaten told her that he didn't see any girls either because he was going to wait. She shouldn't pay attention to his love scenes in _Detective Boy Holmes_ since she was the only one he loved and he was only thinking of her when he accepted the role. In response, she gave him a curious smile and touched a finger to his lips. "You're so oblivious to your own feelings, Yaten," she chuckles, "which is funny since you're usually so perceptive."

Under Seiya's and Taiki's quizzical gazes, she drew him close to her and whispered into his ear, "When Seiya left Kinmoku Sei, you could have stayed. Taiki should go with Seiya, but you should have stayed with me! You didn't even consider the choice—but I can't blame you since I'd have done the same, Yaten!"

The procession of cars had vanished behind the gate, swallowed by the shadows on the tree-lined roads, which, like a pattern of veins, led to Infinity. Since they had put out all the lamps outside, the stars seemed to shine brighter than usual, tinting the midnight sky a deep indigo, which ran into a dark turquoise where thin clouds had begun to veil the waxing moon's light. There were so many avenues to explore, so many choices to make—but in the end, all of them would lead to Infinity. Yaten had been dubbed "the world's prettiest face" in _Naked_ , an art and fashion magazine advocating natural beauty and the importance of communication and openness, but now even this victory had acquired a bitter taste.

x.

"What did she say?"

Seiya was gazing down at him with a curious smile as they were strolling down the road to the next car park, where Igarashi-san would fetch them with the limousine. He looked imperturbable, as if Yaten's impulsive, no-nonsense approach to love declarations did not in the least surprise him although Kakyuu's reaction was unexpected. Yaten wondered why Seiya had bothered to ask, as he must have overheard their talks with his disturbingly good ears. He also looked slightly distracted, as though he was already trying to get into his role of Young Moriarty again; and it occurred to Yaten that the revolution could come and the world could end tomorrow and it wouldn't faze "Young Moriarty" a bit. Seiya would continue to wander about the place with an amiable smile, bury himself in Taiki's monographs on comets, and study various autobiographies of criminals to get into his role.

"Nothing!" Yaten hissed before he cracked under Moriarty's attentive gaze. "Can you imagine that she seriously accused me of loving _you_ more than her?" There was the accepted notion that men were obtuse in love, but when women were oblivious, they were infinitely worse. Foaming with rage, Yaten testily took the cigarette Seiya offered. "Let's squeeze those ninja roles into our schedule and audition for the Garagan musical as well so that we can get her out of Kinmoku Sei soon enough! Who knows what theory she will cook up if she stays there for another year!" He shot Taiki and Seiya an inquiring glance as he drew on his cigarette, grimaced, and put it out to toss it with an expression of disgust into the trash bin. "Maybe she'll believe me if I ask her to marry me? I can propose to her with 'Irene Adler's ring' if Itsuki-san agrees to sell it to me. Do you two mind me proposing to her?"

"Not in the least," Taiki said without rancour while Seiya wordlessly put out his cigarette stub and dropped it into the trash. "I'd be relieved if she married you instead of some overambitious codename member. What do you think, Seiya?"

"I'm not trying to own her," Yaten added. "A marriage won't change anything about this." He didn't know what to call the relationship they had with Kakyuu since they hadn't ever tried to label it.

"Marriage!" Seiya murmured, pronouncing the word with dread as if it encompassed all the social chains and manacles this world had to offer. "I love her as much as you do, but I'd rather die before I let anyone put me in such a straightjacket! I've always thought that she was like me in that aspect… You can propose to her if you want, but I don't think that she will marry you."

On the drive home, Seiya was unusually taciturn and only stared out of the car window at Tokyo's brightly, garishly lit streets. His sombre mood could be attributed to the quarrel with Kakyuu or Yaten's talks of marriage but also to the role of Young Moriarty, which was a far greater challenge than the role of Godfrey Norton. Akane-san might only terrorize Seiya because she had either fallen in love with him or thought that she had discovered an outstanding acting talent, who only lacked the opportunity and the motivation to shine (if she really hated him, she wouldn't have told him to audition for the main role in Garagan-san's musical or the Red Ninja out of all roles), but Seiya had already been harassed for weeks and had slowly begun to display his rebellious streak and his quick temper, which he had hidden well on the set until now.

"What are we going to do now that Kakyuu has decided to lead the Organization in earnest?" Taiki asked Seiya when they entered their current apartment, which Shizuka-san had found for them after they lost their old apartment to the flames—one of Seiya's fans had managed to sneak into the building and burned down the place because she couldn't take the rejection. "You know it's impossible to change her mind, and I suppose you don't seriously plan to shoot the scientist and the mad professor!"

"We'll continue doing whatever we've been doing," Yaten decided. "We don't intervene unless we have to protect ourselves! Maybe we're lucky and the spies and moles and other troublemakers will simply kill each other off before we have to make a move. I'm not keen on working from sunrise to sunset on the set and perform at night onstage and going on traitor hunts for the rest of the night, are you?"

Seiya joked that knowing Yaten, this was exactly what Yaten would do if each traitor caught meant an additional hour with Kakyuu, but Yaten could see that he was already tuning out. Who knew whether the Silver Bullet would ever be completed, Seiya said at last. Right now, the more realistic outcome was that the "Black Organization" (which was the uninspiring name the Sherringford Society had received from all those unimaginative conglomerate leaders, terrorist groups, and secret services) would go down.

"Do you remember the games in which you play God and have to fight the humans who were building the Tower of Babel?"

Yaten could remember them well—especially the frustration they caused when one realized that one couldn't win against so many opponents even if they were weak if they popped up from practically everywhere and one could only eliminate so many enemies at once.

"If the head scientist can't complete the Silver Bullet to unify the members and the secret services manage to use the disappointed codename members to destroy the Organization from the inside, we can already pack for the scenario that the Organization goes down before the handover."

Yaten tried—and failed—to picture their parents in jail. Bearing in mind the number of people they had riled, it would be a miracle if they survived long enough to arrive there. If they did, the trial would be interesting, to say the least. They would be hailed as the modern Robin Hood, and the Organization's popularity would only rise since both of them were dramatic orators and possessed a certain charm.

Fleeing with Kakyuu wouldn't be too difficult, Taiki pointed out. "Our parents, however, are going to cause trouble." They wouldn't only try to revive the Organization at the first opportunity, they would also refuse to run out of the conviction that the captain never abandoned the ship.

Locking them up for life was impossible, Seiya agreed, but it shouldn't be too hard to persuade them to flee if the Organization was brought down. They only needed a spark of hope to survive. If it couldn't be avoided, he would even lie to them and promise to take over the Organization.

"For now, we stick by our 'non-interference policy' and continue the idol life to get Kakyuu out of this. But when the Organization goes down, we sweep into the scene, shoot all the traitors and moles and detectives, snatch Pandora's Box, destroy the documents on the ship, get our parents and the bodyguards and the three dogs, and run as fast as we can to Venice to live happily ever after!"

Very funny albeit too ambitious, Yaten objected—although Seiya's enthusiasm was infectious and almost lulled him into believing that Three Lights could fight and win against everyone and everything. And how are we going to persuade our parents to do the sensible thing and run away instead of inciting a revolution with the remaining members even without the Silver Bullet? Binding and gagging them and wrapping them up as two parcels before asking the bodyguards to carry them through customs?

It's easy, Seiya asserted as he changed into his pyjamas for his nightly stretching routine. "They seem extremely attached to their Silver Bullet project and their two scientists. They'll definitely come with us if we take the professor and the prodigy hostage."

Knowing Seiya, the "hostages" would come with him voluntarily since one of them was female and the other insane, Taiki said in jest, as opposites attracted and birds of a feather flocked together. Perhaps they should focus on the immediate problems and go to sleep before the night ended. After all, they couldn't risk Seiya to crack up and transform into Young Moriarty after seeing what happened when Kakyuu and they played their own version of _The Three Musketeers_ and Seiya got carried away by his double role of Athos and Richelieu.

x.

* * *

 

A/N: I'm sorry for the long break. I was very busy and had to update "Ghost at Twilight" as well. These days I only write exclusively on paper since typing gives me cramps and a stiff neck. It's really relaxing since I've begun to schedule my writing time and write a few pages every day. The next update will be for this story again.

Thanks a lot for the kind reviews and encouragements despite my slow updates. I'm writing regularly these days and hope that I can establish a good writing routine despite all the work I'm drowning in. XD

This is probably my last update for this year since I really have to focus on work for now. Comments and reviews and critique are welcome, as always. I wish you all an early Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! :)

Edit: The last three flashback chapters have been merged.


	41. Part Four: The first act...

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**The first act…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

 

"The first act of the opera lasted about thirty minutes. It's taken you long to search Tenoh's dressing room for the painkillers if you stayed there for the whole act!" observes Shinichi. They're going to arrive at La Fenice in a few minutes; and Shinichi's number-one suspect can't be interrogated while he is applying his stage make-up, especially not when the case is closed and Shinichi doesn't even have the permission to conduct an inquiry.

"I get distracted easily," Seiya brazenly claims. "I was so engrossed in one of Haruka-san's Sherlock Holmes books that I forgot the time."

"So _she_ was suffering from a migraine and you forgot the time because of a Sherlock Holmes book?" Shinichi mercilessly asks, whereupon Seiya offers the sorry excuse that "old habits die hard."

"Which story was so extremely compelling that it distracted you from your girlfriend's headaches?" If Seiya doesn't even attempt to invent a plausible excuse, Shinichi might as well expose him as a liar in front of Ai.

In response, Seiya lists _A Study in Scarlett_ , _The Sign of Four_ , and "A Scandal in Bohemia", all of which were in the fake Wordsworth's Classics edition of _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_ , which includes the first two Holmes novels in the first short story collection. Seeing that lingering over the topic will get him nowhere (being the dedicated actor he is, Seiya will most probably have studied all the Sherlock Holmes stories so well that Shinichi will only make a fool of himself if he insists on testing Seiya's knowledge of the canon), Shinichi decides to focus his efforts on another question.

"Even without taking Tenoh's thirty-minute delay into account, the interval between the second and the third act was especially long: forty minutes between seven twenty and eight o'clock because the whole 'opera' was sung by only one singer, whose voice needed time to recover from the strain. The portiere didn't remember the time when you came to the opera house because he was distracted by a book as well. So, when exactly did you return?"

Isn't it great that the general enthusiasm for literature hasn't waned in the internet age? He honestly doesn't know when he came back because he doesn't wear a watch and doesn't care about the time, Seiya blithely responds. Hakuba Saguru, whom he encountered this morning when he visited Chiba at the Gritti, has already asked him similar questions and received the same answers. He is terribly sorry for being such a scatterbrain, but the skills which singers have to hone are completely different from the skills which detectives need. Hence asking him to assist a criminal investigation makes as much sense as asking Shinichi or Hakuba to sing a supporting role in an opera or a musical.

Shinichi, who has come to the same conclusion (and who has noticed that Ai looks increasingly unhappy about the tension between him and her singer) finally gives up on Seiya as a witness. What Shinichi needs is not a theory but irrefutable evidence. Until then, it will be only his word against Seiya's; and Shinichi doesn't need to be a genius to know that Ai—being the unfaithful wretch she is—has reallocated her trust in him to her dubious singer.

x.

The small square in front of La Fenice and all the streets leading to it are teeming with journalists, paparazzi, and fans, much to Shinichi's utter horror. As much as he liked the love letters of his female admirers, which he used to collect and reread regularly before the girls all switched to sending him emails and love letters from strangers lost their quaint charm, Shinichi suspects that his fans and Seiya's fans have very little in common. With a few exceptions, his fans are sensible enough to content themselves with expressing their admiration verbally whereas Seiya's fans are so fanatically, obsessively infatuated with their idol that they're capable of committing murder or suicide.

Even if the fans weren't an issue, parading Ai in front of so many cameras as Seiya's life partner is a disaster waiting to happen. Although the seven crows have committed suicide and most of the codename members, who haven't followed their example, have been arrested, many former members—among them codename members, who have committed high-profile crimes—are still on the run. If anyone recognizes Sherry in Seiya Kou's alleged girlfriend, it will cause a scandal from which Ai's reputation won't recover for years, not to mention the possibility that an embittered former member or even a victim of the Organization could get the idea to assassinate her. A glance at Seiya shows Shinichi that the singer is just as apprehensive as he is. Their eyes meet for an instant, just when a shrill voice shouts "Seiya-sama!", which sparks off a cacophony of sobs and screams and squeals. And Shinichi, taking advantage of the coincidence (but is it really a coincidence?) that Seiya has let go of Ai's hand, throws his arm over her shoulder and—thus hiding the lower part of her hair with his arm while shouting "Please let my wife and me pass!"—fights a way through the flood of excited fans and the walls of flashing lights past La Fenice.

x.

When Shiho turns around to cast Seiya a wondering glance, he silently signals for her to go with Kudo. It won't hurt to postpone the inevitable public exposure for a few hours; and Kudo and Shiho seem to need a private conversation to clear up the many misunderstandings between them. Naturally, Seiya is under no illusion that Kudo will ever like him—hell will freeze over before that happens!—and in this case, the sentiment is mutual.

As much as Kudo's decisiveness and resilience impress Seiya, it's hard to root for an opponent who makes no secret of his jealousy against you and who has shown you that he would steal her away from you the very moment you allow him to do it. It wouldn't have worried Seiya if Kudo had arrived in Venice at a less opportune moment for this endeavour, during the first months of Seiya and Shiho's relationship, when they spent almost every waking and sleeping moment joined together like two Lego pieces, with their limbs always intertwined in some way so that it was impossible to distinguish when one person ended and the other one began—before Seiya had to go back to work and Shiho began to meet up with Haruka-san, who talked her into leaving him. But Kudo has come just when they're going through this blackmail drama and Seiya needs to focus on the musical, during the phase when Seiya will usually shut himself off from the outside world and Shiho and he will live together in a pleasant but slightly distracted cohabitation until the season ends.

Where is your secretary? Is she really your secret girlfriend? Are you two living together? How long has this been going on?…

The reporters are blocking his way to the entrance where Gentile is standing, tapping a gloved finger demonstratively at his vintage watch, his face contorted with rage and agony, "You're late, Signor Kou! We need at least four hours for the Phantom's mask! Since you didn't answer your phone, I've already asked your stand-in to get into the costume!"

"Where is Shiho Miyano, your beautiful girlfriend?" asks a skinny Italian journalist, whose impressively high, penetrating soprano voice pierces through the racket and caterwauling of the hysterical crowd and whose question Seiya feels like answering because she has made an effort to learn how to correctly pronounce Shiho's name. "Has she decided to skip the opening night because of Haruka Tenoh's mysterious death or because you two don't want to make your relationship public?"

"Why did you claim that she was only your secretary?" shouts another reporter, who has pushed her microphone into Seiya's face so that he has to shove it aside to keep walking. "Are you two in a committed relationship, or is this only a fling?"

"I'm still very much in love with her," Seiya says into the microphone of the Italian journalist, whom he has immediately taken a liking to because she stands out from the masses with her curious, intelligent eyes. "But it seems like she has just eloped with another man," he cheerily asserts before Shizuka-san's plaintive, exhausted voice steals into his head, "Couldn't you simply have kept your big mouth shut instead? The role of the abandoned life partner suits you even less than the role of the adoring boyfriend! This is the most destructive joke you could have made for your image! How am I supposed to react to this? Oh damn, damn, damn, damn!"

x.

The Italian journalist jumps in surprise when a fragrant cloud of blonde hair brushes against Seiya's chin and rests on his shoulder, exactly half a _shaku_ above the spot where Odango's head would have been eight years ago. "The truth of the matter is that he has broken up with her to be with me so that he is mine now," declares a deep, familiar female voice before two long-fingered hands forcefully grab his arm. And Seiya turns his head just in time to evade Minako-chan's kiss and to catch Shiho's menacing glare, which she has shot him before disappearing behind the corner with her detective. Gazing down at his old friend in dismay, Seiya notices once again that a woman's attractiveness isn't always directly proportional to her beauty and elegance. Although Rei-chan, who is now following them with a resigned smile and a raised eyebrow, is prettier by a wide margin and would win a beauty contest by a landslide, Minako-chan possesses the much-coveted glow. For the sake of the musical, Seiya hopes that Rei-chan's talents and hard work, added to her immense beauty, will outperform the competition on stage, as it won't do their production any good if Christine Daaé pales beside Meg.

"Why can't you share your fame with less lucky mortals like us, you selfish, gorgeous jerk?" Minako-chan hisses into his ear while beaming at the reporters and paparazzi, who are taking photos of them with maniacal enthusiasm. "You'd only have to pucker up and go along with the charade for once! I've just saved your lovely butt from the whip of your demon agent—and all I get from you is a heartless public rejection!"

x.

* * *

 

A/N:

Sorry for the long break. First, I was insanely busy again and then I updated "Ghost at Twilight". These days I try to post a few short chapters of one WIP before switching to the other WIP so that I won't lose the motivation to update either story despite my busy schedule (scribbling on paper is fun but typing and editing my scrawl is a pain!). Since it confuses a few readers when I merge the chapters, I'll just leave them alone for now and merge them after ending the story. As always, comments and critique are welcome.

The next update will be for this fic again since I've almost finished it on paper.

In other news, LiveJournal has changed its ToS so that I've moved my public entries to Dreamwidth, my new journal, where I also post the summary keywords for my two WIPs. I've also decided to stop posting update announcements on my journal and will trust the alert system of FfNet and AO3 to alert the readers instead.

 


	42. Part Four: "Your wife..."

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**"Your wife…"**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

x.

"Your wife?"

"Why not, does it sound so horrible to your ears?"

They're striding to the nearby Santa Maria del Giglio ACTV and Aliaguna stop, where (according to Shinichi's plan) they can take a vaporetto in the direction of San Marco. To keep up their charade in front of Seiya's fans, who are now standing in line on the streets to get the last tickets at the box office, she has agreed to wrap an arm around his waist while he has left his arm around her shoulder. The embrace feels perfectly right now that Shinichi has grown so much that they have the ideal height difference for it—and suddenly Venice, whose charm has been lost on Shinichi at first, seems suffused in a nostalgic, almost magical glow.

The early sunset has deepened the blue of the sky and is bathing the tops of the towers and the roofs of the palazzi in a golden light. On the horizon, the first tints of orange and red have just appeared while the shadows are turning violet and purple. Even the rows of radiant, expectant faces on the streets (all of which belong to Seiya's fans, who have put on their fanciest clothes for the musical), lift Shinichi's spirits. Laughing at the mental image that Seiya must still be fighting his way to the opera house while he has escaped with Ai, Shinichi mentally lists all the cafés in the vicinity where they can stay for an hour before going to Kaioh's place. The Caffè Florian seems like the right place for having a cup of tea and a heart-to-heart. Despite its international repute, it will be less overrun by tourists than Harry's Bar or the roof terrace of the Danieli.

As much as Shinichi would like to bring Ai to the Danieli, he decides against it because the Danieli's roof terrace would unavoidably evoke her memories of Seiya's roof terrace. The staff of Caffè Florian are impeccable and unobtrusive, from what Shinichi could see when he was there with Ran; and if Shinichi is lucky, he will manage to persuade Ai to skip the musical and help him investigate the Tenoh Haruka case—at least out of concern for her singer if not out of interest in the truth or out of friendship to Shinichi.

"The very word 'wife' sounds terrifying to me—or at least it used to when I was still traumatized by the disaster with Gin," Ai remarks with an appreciative smile at the streaks of orange on the horizon. "These days I can only see security, all the rights which a girlfriend doesn't have, and the freedom to get a divorce if the relationship ceases to be great. Even marriage can be enjoyable with the right partner."

Feeling that his arm on her shoulder has grown tense, she adds with a resigned sigh, "I see I don't need to ask what you think of my husband! Maybe Venice isn't large enough for two egos of that enormous size to coexist without clashing—"

"Are you secretly married?" Shinichi cuts her off as a feeling of nausea settles in his stomach. They might really have married on a whim, in a remote corner of Europe where Seiya's name is less notorious, which would give the rings he saw in the singer's drawer a completely different meaning.

"No, but we're as married as we'll ever be. Neither of us wants to go through the hassle of filing the necessary paperwork and planning the event." She chuckles and draws her shawl, which has covered her chin and her lower lip until now, away from her face. "Just imagine the mayhem our wedding would cause: half of the women under fifty would be on the streets to lynch me!"

"I can't believe you've ever considered marrying him in all seriousness!" From the look on her face, Shinichi can tell that this isn't the first time that she has toyed with the thought.

She shoots him a quizzical, calculating glance, and he can tell that she hasn't only considered marrying her singer but has also planned it although she will never admit it to him.

"Well, I can't imagine that he will ever propose, and I'm not keen on getting on my knees either. Things are perfect for us as they are now. But if he absolutely wants to declare to the whole world that he intends to be mine for life, I'm not going to refuse the offer!" Noticing that he finds the idea too nightmarish to consider, she glances about herself to check their surroundings, lets go of his waist, frees herself from his arm, and sighs.

"I'm sorry that things haven't worked out well for Mori-san and you—but if she doesn't jump at the chance to marry her kendo champion, she might still be mourning what you two had. Instead of taking your frustration out on Seiya and me, you should ask yourself why you've become so bitter after she tried to move on with another man and seize this opportunity to get her back as long as you can!"

"This doesn't have anything to do with Ran!" Shinichi brushes off her suggestion with more vehemence than intended, but the way she links his exasperation at her singer to his failed relationship with Ran as if she believed him to begrudge her the long-term commitment drives him up the wall. "It's Seiya who I can't stand! You trust him too much although you know that he is a master liar and you have nothing but his word!"

It's unfortunate that he encountered Seiya when both of them got out of bed on the wrong side, she claims. "Maybe it could have been salvaged by Kino-san's tiramisu if only Seiya had arrived at Kino-san's shop in time… But at least he did bring six portions of zabaglione as replacement as I asked him to! I knew he was unlikely to succeed. Kino-san's tiramisu is even more popular than her strawberry chocolate cake—there are addicts who wait during aqua alta in front of her shop just to get it."

Alas, she is as oblivious to Seiya's flaws as the infatuated fans who have tried to camp in front of La Fenice. "Oscar Wilde said that there are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it… Or to quote George Bernard Shaw: 'There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it!' We've had our fights, of course—sometimes about things I can't even remember anymore—and I've left him more than once. But as far as cohabitation goes, this is as great as a relationship can be!" Seiya is extremely pleasant to be with, she insists in a voice which she would have derided as "gushing" years ago, whenever Shinichi used it to talk about Ran; and Shinichi almost feels tempted to remind her of the story of Icarus, who—ignoring all warnings—flew too near to the sun. "… I've never met anyone who is so easy to please! He never complains about anything and is happy with the tiniest crumbs he gets from me. I suspect that he can talk himself into loving any actress he is paired with onstage—and they'll all become obsessed with him just as they'll all resent me in the long run—but since he never acts on it and it's over the moment he sheds the costume, I accept his consolation gifts and consider the spells of emotional infidelity and his constant flirting tiny blemishes which even the most perfect beauty must have."

"If you need someone to list all his shortcomings for you, I can do it! He can change like a chameleon—but at the speed of light! His job demands that he spends half of the year abroad or on the road while your job doesn't allow you to go with him! You will never know whether he cheats on you or not because he can lie so well that not even I can detect when he is lying and when he is telling the truth. He isn't only a magnet to almost all vulnerable women—he also flirts with the women who are interested in him. He is reckless, careless, and workaholic while he is nonchalant and non-committal about all the things which should matter—and he is my number-one suspect! Among the people who were in the backstage area at the time of Tenoh's death, he is the only one who possesses the opportunity, the talent, the character, and the nerves for the crime!" Since she remains shockingly unfazed by his arguments, he throws his hands into the air and exclaims, "I'd never have expected the man you end up with to be so, so…" For once, he is at lost for words.

"So extraordinarily stunning?" She tilts her head to study him with mild curiosity as a flicker of amusement crosses her face. "I was surprised, too, to be honest. But not being the pretty one in our relationship has been easier than I thought—there is no need to indulge in petty rivalries when life is so good!"

"For someone who is supposed to be happy, you look thoroughly exhausted," he points out. "You're still accustomed to overextending yourself!"

"I was busy and didn't sleep well during the past months," she dismisses his observation with a flick of the wrist. "I'm going to have much more time from now on."

Shinichi was about to comment that she must be right since one of her employers was murdered last night, which freed her of her obligations of a secretary, whatever they were, but the direction in which she is leading him now makes him bite back the remark in favour of another one. So she still intends to watch the musical despite knowing the commotion her appearance will cause, he asks her, staggered by her absurd persistence. Seiya's fans will tear her into shreds, he warns her, to say nothing of the reporters and the former members of the Organization.

Visibly amused by his concern for her, she smiles to herself and shakes her head, claiming that she already has a bodyguard and doesn't need his protection.

"Seiya let go of me so that we can talk, but he has been looking forward to showing me how he applies the stage make-up for the face of the Phantom." Although she appears to be genuinely sorry for turning down his invitation, she is adamant that she stays with her singer on the opening night. "It wasn't easy for Seiya to convince the director to let him apply his stage make-up himself. But he is great at it, he never fails to impress, and it's fascinating how he changes the details every time to make it better! He must be disappointed that I'm not there to watch him."

"So you've already seen him applying his stage make-up more than once! You've even watched most of the rehearsals, from what I've heard. Why can't we have a snack and tea at the Florian instead? Afterwards you can go with me to Kaioh's place since I have to meet up with Carrara there at half past five."

To his annoyance, he sounds almost desperate; and it irks him even more that his urgent tone hasn't escaped her. A smile brightens her face when she considers his suggestions—and since her smile doesn't vanish but broadens when their eyes meet, he allows himself to entertain the hope that she will come with him.

"Let's meet up at the Florian tomorrow at three p.m. instead! All the cafés at the Piazza di San Marco are open on Sundays, so there shouldn't be any problems." Noticing that he is crushed by her refusal, she tries to explain herself although she seems baffled by his behaviour. "It means a lot to Seiya that I always attend the opening night. I can't simply abandon him during the musical, on the opening night out of all nights! It's depressing enough that I'm not in his dressing room at the moment to watch him apply his stage make-up! By the time I'm back, I'll have missed over half an hour."

So what? You've abandoned me and missed almost four years of my cases, Shinichi would have liked to counter. But since it would sound like a most inappropriate love declaration and there is no sense in nagging at her about her disappearance again, he opts for a delaying tactic until she comes to her senses.

"Let's talk about the case then, before you go back to him! You know I need your help to solve it—and if you care about him so much, you should be interested in solving it as well!"

"You seem absolutely certain that he has done it," she observes, knitting her brows in mild irritation. "Why?"

"Commissario Carrara told me that there were no fingerprints in Tenoh's dressing room apart from her own fingerprints on the cup, the chair, the table, the vase, the doorknob, the shelf, and the frame of the painting. Well, there were my fingerprints on the shelf as well since I touched it when I took out her Sherlock Holmes books—but Seiya's weren't in the room although they should have been there."

"There were no fingerprints in the dressing room but your fingerprints and Tenoh-san's?" She doesn't look half as sure of her singer's innocence as she looked half a minute ago, and Shinichi curses his bad luck for making him the one who has to break the news to her.

"There is a clearly defined handprint—of Seiya's right hand—on the doorknob from the outside, which Seiya must have intentionally placed there after removing the fingerprints, maybe even after Gentile has already discovered the corpse, when Seiya realized that his own fingerprints must be found on the doorknob from the outside in case other people remember that he has taken Tenoh's sofa. He didn't need to risk detection by touching the doorknob from the inside since he can claim that he has kept the door ajar with his foot so that he didn't leave any fingerprints in the room but on the sofa, which is in his dressing room now."

"That's silly! If it had been him, he wouldn't have had to remove any fingerprints since he can use the sofa as an excuse! Wiping the fingerprints off her cup would have sufficed and taken less time!"

"Sure! But that means that someone else would have been suspected instead! That's why he removed all the fingerprints and created circumstances which should prove that none of the people in the backstage area could have committed the murder. But it's only an illusion—and to uphold it, he had to arouse the commissario's suspicions without giving the commissario the chance to make an arrest." Since she doesn't respond, Shinichi continues in resignation, "True to his character, he turned the situation into a self-parody or a joke: 'Here I am, your mentally unstable, arrogant sociopath of a culprit! I'm clearly guilty, as you can see, but I'm so smart that you'll never catch me!'… Even I fell for his act because he was so extremely irritating. While that actually makes him one of the kindest—or even the most considerate culprit—I've ever encountered, it wouldn't change anything about the fact that he has taken another person's life. I want to know his motive and figure out the details before I decide what to do with my knowledge. But I can't do that if you don't help me!"

She is striding back to La Fenice with her hands in the pockets of her coat, and Shinichi silently keeps pace with her until he loses his patience and stops her by taking her elbow.

"I haven't told Carrara about this yet, but I looked at my watch after Gentile appeared on stage and asked for a doctor. It was five past nine! How could thirty-five minutes have passed between the time Gentile discovered Tenoh's corpse and the time he called for a doctor? My guess is that less than ten minutes—probably only five minutes, if Gentile was fast—have passed. The thirty minutes in between have been 'stolen' by someone who is skilled at capturing the attention of the audience—by a skilled magician, for instance, or by a very charismatic actor!"

She doesn't answer, but her pale face and bright eyes betray her mounting distress. He can also discern a distant faraway look in her eyes, a flicker of remembrance. She has been betrayed by a lover who misused her drugs once. He can tell that she doesn't want to go through the same experience for a second time.

"Commissario Carrara was absolutely sure that, if this was murder, it could only have been Seiya. But even he doesn't really want to convict Seiya, especially not when he doesn't know what Tenoh died of and can't imagine how Seiya could have pulled it off. He doesn't know what you and I know, though! Do use your head and don't defend Seiya just because you don't want to believe it!"

Seeing that she has blanched even more as she eventually arrives at the same conclusion as him, he adds, "Seiya isn't only a showman with many talents, he also has one great talent which no other person in the backstage area—probably no other person in the whole opera house—has! Carrara doesn't know about it, and Carrara doesn't even care about the time because his hands are tied without a proof that Tenoh has been poisoned. But Hakuba has shown interest in the case and has already deduced that you're Haibara Ai without my help! Hakuba will be unstoppable when he learns more about it and notices that Seiya has manipulated the witnesses and messed up their sense of time. If I don't solve the case, Hakuba is going to solve it! You should cooperate with Carrara and me before another commissario takes over the case and convicts Seiya with Hakuba's help."

Among all the former highschool detectives Shinichi knows, Hakuba is the one Shinichi likes the least, mainly because Hakuba isn't only a hedonistic jerk and an unbearable know-it-all but also the sort of detective Holmes pretended to be but wasn't: a cold, calculating case-solving machine for whom only the satisfaction of his own curiosity matters. Hakuba isn't particularly interested in humans or even in justice, wouldn't mind testing an unknown drug on his closest allies to watch its effects (in fact, Hakuba was openly looking forward to seeing Kuroba drugged when he was warned that the Organization possessed an undetectable poison), will instinctively choose solving a mystery to saving a human life (as he has demonstrated to Hattori and Shinichi once), and would undoubtedly convict his best friends in front of a camera without batting an eyelid just to ask his famous question: "Why?"

Shinichi liked Hakuba as an ally—Hakuba's sense of humour sometimes reminded him of Ai's; and it was impossible not to be impressed by Hakuba's brilliance and efficiency. But when Hattori died, Hakuba attempted to console Shinichi with the observation that selfless, heroic people with Hattori's impulsive temper seldom reach old age… To be fair, it's not callousness but rather Hakuba's inability to feel real compassion for anyone but his own housekeeper and his falcon, on whom Hakuba has exhausted his limited capacity to love. Depressingly, now that Shinichi is picturing a showdown between Hakuba and the most likely culprit, Shinichi very much prefers Seiya, as dangerous and frustrating as Seiya is, to the time-obsessed detective.

x. 

* * *

 

A/N: I've copied this chapter from my paper notebook into the phone since I don't have access to a laptop at the moment. It works better than I thought although I had to do it in snippets.

Also, I had to split this chapter again. It seems a long chapter of mine is about 10000 words long if I don't split it.

 


	43. Part Four: "You can't prove..."

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**"You can't prove…"**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

i.

"You can't prove that Seiya has poisoned Tenoh-san—you only believe that he has done it just because he could have done it! I remember you used to say that one shouldn't draw hasty conclusions from flimsy evidence, but that's exactly what you're doing now."

Contrary to her calm, nonchalant words, her troubled gaze and raspy voice betray her anxiety. Shinichi can tell that she has grasped the wider implications despite his sketchy outline of the facts. Ai has always been able to keep up with his deductions whenever she was motivated enough to ponder the problem.

"'Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth,'" he counters, falling into his old habit of quoting Sherlock Holmes, whereupon she gleefully lists all the holes and fallacies in Holmes' modus operandi or rule of thumb, which only applies when you have all the information necessary for a definite conclusion.

"All right!" he says, triumphantly. "Let's search for more clues, then—until we have all the information we need. Maybe we can even prove that Seiya is innocent. Murder isn't a trifling offence! The public can easily forgive Seiya for all his rumoured peccadillos—but they would never forgive him for poisoning Tenoh!" Since Seiya's blithe disregard for his reputation has obviously rubbed off on Ai, Shinichi has to take it up a notch: "I know Seiya doesn't care a hoot about other people's opinions, but you've always cared about your reputation. Being with a notorious murderer isn't the same as being with a notorious womanizer! If you really believe in Seiya, you should help me prove that he is innocent! Otherwise you'll never know for sure whether you haven't voluntarily bound yourself to a murderer."

A look of horror and dread crosses her face before her fear is replaced by her usual composure and stubborn defiance, and Shinichi can tell with conviction that she would stick by Seiya even if Shinichi could provide her with irrefutable evidence that Seiya was responsible for Tenoh's untimely passing. "What do you want to know?" she asks at last, tilting her head to flash him her half-friendly, half-ironic smile before she resumes walking. Now she is strolling towards La Fenice with a decidedly Seiyaesque nonchalance. As much as her attitude aggravates him, Shinichi must admit that Ai and her singer may be more similar to each other than Shinichi thought. Even this rebellious streak could just be another side of hers which Shinichi has never taken notice of although it has always been there.

Ai was emotional and impulsive enough to slip into a serious relationship with an assassin once. Compared to that, being with a considerate murderer who poisoned a fellow musician in a painless way and made sure that no one else would be suspected must seem to her like a good deal.

"Were Tenoh and you classmates? Why did you try to hide it from commissario Carrara?" Since the possibility exists that she will run back to her singer as soon as the talk is over, Shinichi chooses to proceed from the banal to the important. This way he can use the most important questions to distract her until she misses the musical.

"Who has told you that we were classmates?"

"My mother." Since there is no reason to hide it from her, Shinichi shows her the Infinity group photo, which he has saved to his phone. "You looked different back then!" he can't help saying as his gaze falls on the pretty strawberry-blonde bunhead, who had all of Ai's features and colours but none of her distinctive sharpness.

"I _was_ different back then!" She beholds her former face with the detachment of an old woman pondering a regrettable past. "Tenoh-san and I weren't classmates. At Infinity, we were allowed to choose all our classes, but Tenoh-san and I didn't have even one class together." She squints at him against the reddish light of the setting sun. "I suppose that tells you a lot about our compatibility!"

Considering how different they were and how little she mourned Tenoh's death, they had willingly spent quite a bit of their free time together, Shinichi remarks—an observation which Ai chooses to acknowledge without a repartee.

"You probably think it's a group photo of our class," she says instead. "But it's actually a group photo of the whole academy. Most students were kicked out of Infinity or voluntarily left within the first two months. The classes were extremely demanding even by the Organization's standards… Also, Professor Tomoe's witch of a secretary wasn't the most agreeable person."

"What's the name of Professor Tomoe's secretary?"

"I don't know, I've forgotten it since we only called her 'Kaolinite'."

 _Kaolinite_ … Shinichi can remember hearing the name once—a few years ago in a flower shop in Azabu Juuban where he bought a flower bouquet for Ran. It was a nickname the saleswoman of the shop used for a stuck-up customer she couldn't stand. If the saleswoman Shinichi met then is still working at the place, it shouldn't be difficult for Shinichi to find 'Kaolinite'.

"There were only about sixty students at Infinity while you were there?"

"Even less than sixty at the end of the semester. I think all the Infinity students were on the photo except for Meioh-san, who was Professor Tomoe's assistant. She volunteered to take our group photos because she loved photography but didn't like being photographed. Kaolinite isn't on the photo either because she had another bad hair day."

"I've heard that Meioh Setsuna was in charge of Tenoh and Kaioh's adopted daughter —Professor Tomoe's daughter—whenever Tenoh and Kaioh weren't in Japan. Meioh must be a very good friend of both of them. Were Tenoh and she already friends at Infinity? And is it true that Meioh is Chiba's friend as well? Kino claimed that Meioh always seemed to like him most."

"Meioh-san and Chiba-san?" Ai laughs (a delightful sound, which Shinichi doesn't fail to notice in spite of his irritation). "You know, Kudo, one day you'll be assassinated for spreading baseless rumours! Meioh-san told me they met during a summer course in Harvard—that was before Chiba-san went to Oxford, even before Meioh-san went to Infinity. She was impressed by him but definitely not impressed enough to stay in contact with him. The next time they met, he already had a fiancée and she was so immersed in being the perfect mother for Hotaru-chan that she could barely feign interest in anyone else. Meioh-san is the most intimidating woman I've ever met: extremely handsome, impeccably polite, very intelligent, very withdrawn! She loves Hotaru-chan very much, though. One could get the impression she loves Hotaru-chan even more than Tenoh-san did. People who don't know them often mistake Hotaru-chan for Meioh-san's child. Even Kaioh-san once remarked that Meioh-san was the best parent for their 'hime-chan'."

"'Hime-chan'… Well, maybe the child _is_ a real princess, considering the wealth and fame and social status of her adoptive parents! Does she often come to Venice with Meioh?"

"Only very seldom. She hasn't returned to Venice since I came here." Ai's answer has a ring of anxiety, which is odd since she seemed perfectly at ease talking about the supposedly intimidating "dark ruler" Meioh Setsuna, whose speaking name couldn't be gloomier.

"How is Professor Tomoe's daughter like? Just as difficult as her insane father?"

"On the contrary! Hotaru-chan is very sensible. Solitary, sensitive, frail, very talented. She gets sick easily and suffers from asthma attacks and all sorts of allergies, but it's amazing how she deals with all her problems without complaining…"

"'… but?'" Shinichi adds with a frown. Ai looked slightly frustrated when she talked about little girl—almost as if she would have liked to add a "but" to her sentence but couldn't for some reason.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" His voice sounds sharp to his own ears, and his gaze must have automatically turned into the penetrating stare which he always uses on the witnesses who dare to lie to him. Unsurprisingly, Ai is not in the least intimidated but seems merely annoyed by his persistence.

"Well, Hotaru-chan doesn't have any friends," she says at last, but Shinichi doubts that this was the issue she would have liked to talk about because it sounds rather like a distraction she has made up for him on the fly. "She spends most of her free time alone in the cellar making lampshades and toy planets for her imaginary universe. Meioh-san does her best to keep Hotaru-chan company whenever she can."

"Hotaru sounds just like you," Shinichi points out before he corrects himself. "Or just like you were before you had friends and left them to go to Venice to become the… the 'secretary' of an ex-teen idol!"

"'Girlfriend' is the correct term on the tip of your tongue!" Ai's glare lasts only a fleeting moment before she is struck by a thought which takes the edge off her anger. "What about you?" she suddenly asks. "Have there been any other women in your life after your break-up with Mori-san?"

"None apart from my mother, a few female police officers who provide me with the information I need to solve my cases, a few witnesses, a few victims who survived, even a few repentant culprits who keep sending me fan letters… well, and Sonoko, if you count her sermons and insults on the phone!"

"That's plenty of women! You shouldn't have added your mother to your list of conquests, though!" she chides him with a grin. "It's natural for a mother to adore her son."

"There have been no conquests whatsoever! I've only been searching for you!" Shinichi snaps, realizing too late that Ai could mistake his concern for romantic longing. Luckily, she appears too preoccupied with another thought and chooses to ignore (or has she completely missed?) the implication.

"Did you break up with Mori-san because she prevented you from returning to the ship?" she asks, visibly disturbed by the possibility that he has blamed Hattori's death on Ran. For a moment, Shinichi considers leaving Ai in the belief that this was the reason why Ran and he split up—an idea which could provide Ai with the incentive to tell him the truth in case she has lied to him when she claimed to know nothing about what happened to Hattori. But since the probability that Ai would only call him an idiot and a jerk for leaving Ran is higher than the probability that this plan would work out, Shinichi ends up giving her a fairly truthful account of how Ran and he ended their relationship—with one honest but thoughtless remark which Shinichi blurted out when he was desperate and Ran's realization that Shinichi would be relieved if he didn't have to return to her.

"What a sad affair," Ai murmurs in a flat voice, fixing her faraway gaze at the entrance of Al Theatro, the small café adjacent to La Fenice, where two glamorously dressed Japanese women in their late thirties or early forties (whose faces are barely recognizable behind their colourful glasses and fluffy scarves and hats although Shinichi can make out a long dark braid on the pale lavender scarf of the taller one) are presently surrounded by the same reporters who had tried to interview Seiya. They have arrived at Campo La Fantin in the meantime, which is now teeming with journalists and disappointed fans who couldn't snatch a ticket ("Where are the blasted ticket touts when you need them?" "Even the last scalpers have run out of tickets by now!" "Itabashi-sensei, please tell us about your new project with Three Lights—is it true that Seiya Kou and Yaten Kou will appear in the same photo series for the first time?); and Shinichi can feel acutely that Ai is preparing to leave him for her dark Phantom of the Opera despite the unsolved case Shinichi has presented to her like an enormous piece of marzipan covered with bittersweet chocolate on a fine silver plate…

Three years of thrill and suspense and what Shinichi once believed to be the most perfect partnership—wiped out by a beautiful voice and three, almost four years of dull domestic duties. Women are indeed a different species!

"No, neither of us are sorry that it didn't work out as we hoped!" Shinichi gloomily resolves to put Ai straight about his feelings concerning the break-up and Ran. "If Ran and I had married, I'd have become a second-rate detective with a family I wasn't ready for and Ran would have become an unhappy, neglected stay-at-home mum with one or two mystery-obsessed toddlers who would have cost her all the years of regular karate workouts. I'm actually glad that it ended early enough for Ran not to waste the opportunity to lead her own dojo."

"I meant to say it's a pity that you two didn't split up a few months earlier, before I decided to go to Venice! Back then, I'd have been overjoyed at the news!"

This time, the half-mischievous, half-nostalgic smile in her eyes confuses him more than her words. Shinichi has always hated Ai's ability to throw him off balance by being so scandalously blunt just when he least expects it—but he is even more disturbed by her inability to commit to one version, one story, one damn love declaration whether it's the truth or a lie.

"Why?" Despite hating himself for asking her (frankly, there is nothing about her statement which even a dense guy like him can misunderstand; and if it weren't for her mysterious smile and all the practical jokes she has played on him by now, he would have believed her already!), Shinichi can't help but feel flustered when it hits him that right now she might be telling the truth. So Ai _was_ in love with him, after all—and from the sound of it, she bitterly regrets that she ran to Venice with another man on a whim just when he had ended things with his girlfriend, especially now that she knows that he has combed the whole of Japan in his search for her.

"I must have grown accustomed to you," she admits in the vulnerable but matter-of-fact tone in which grandmothers tell their favourite grandchildren about the long-deceased great love of their life. "So much that there was nothing I wanted more than being in Mori-san's shoes for once! It wasn't easy for me to hide it, but I didn't want to steal someone else's boyfriend either." As she reminisces about her pre-Venice past, she lets her serene gaze roam about the small campo in front of the opera house as though she were a young queen watching over the hustle and bustle of her people. "I was also sure I'd be rejected if I was impertinent enough to make a move. Going to Venice with Tenoh-san sounded like the perfect solution." Emotion suddenly suffuses her voice when her gaze falls on the two women in front of Al Theatro. "Then I met Seiya and completely lost my head…"

"You were really in love with me?" Shinichi asks again, repeating the statement more to himself than to her. Maybe he wasn't struggling with her belated love declaration but rather with the question how he could have doubted it, or rather how he could have overlooked all the obvious clues and even dismissed his mother's observations when the truth was so glaring.

Since Ai doesn't reply immediately, Shinichi grabs her by her shoulder and stops her to study her face in an attempt to recall her exact expression and her exact tone when she told him that she was still in love with him despite having a very attentive boyfriend. But while he still can't tell whether it was a joke or not (just as he can't tell whether she would push him away now if he gave in to the unexplainable urge to kiss her perfect lipstick-free mouth), he can see how much his question has exasperated her.

"No, you see…" she gently says and raises her head to look directly into his eyes, her gaze steady and her lips slightly curved in the familiar mocking half-smile, which wrecks the new order of Shinichi's world and leaves him in total disarray again. "I'm just kidding!"

With that, the world stops spinning. "' _Reunion in Venice_ ,'" the reporters in front of Al Theatro parrot back to each other just when Shinichi decides that throttling Ai in front of so many witnesses would ruin his chance of solving the case for good. The tall, fashionably dressed woman with dark hair in a long French braid, who must be "Itabashi-sensei" (or is Itabashi-sensei the other lady?), throws her hands into the air in despair whereas her companion (an elegant woman, who looks faintly familiar to Shinichi although he can't see either her hair or her face, both of which are covered by her eggshell-coloured silk scarf and her red-tinted glasses) only gestures for the journalists to leave them alone before she disappears behind the waiter, who has just come to her rescue.

"It's only a working title," the woman with the French braid, who is still standing with one foot outside Al Theatro, cries in English, "and this is probably just one of the projects that will forever stay in development hell like so many others before it! In any case, _Naked_ will survive with or without it! Please don't misquote me since neither Seiya nor Yaten have agreed to anything."

i.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm terribly sorry about the long disappearance (papers, stress, sickness again etc.). I'll be so busy writing my thesis and studying for my exams until next spring that I'll barely have enough free time to scribble into my notebooks. But I'll keep posting whenever I have a scene which I can edit and upload. :) Thanks a lot to everyone who is still patient enough to keep reading!
> 
> Alex565: Thank you for your review. I'll update faster again starting from next spring, but before that, I have to focus on my final exams. (I'd rather write fics all day, but sadly no one will pay me for doing it. XD)
> 
> Muphrid:
> 
> I've already replied to your (lovely and long) review in a PM, but I'll just answer to two questions here since other readers may be interested in the answer as well: I use different romanization of the Japanese names like how I came across them when I started to read and write fics over ten years ago. "Tenoh" should be spelled "Tenou", but by then I was accustomed to the European spelling and liked how obviously long that ending looked with an "oh" instead of an "ou". On the other hand, I was accustomed to seeing "Kudo" and "Mori" before I saw "Kudoh" or "Kudou". So, the way how I use the romanization of the Japanese names has more to do with my old habits and less to do with a logical structure. :)
> 
> As for why Ai doesn't address Shinichi as "Kudo-kun" but as "Kudo": I let her change her way of addressing him during the three years of their friendship in my universe (it was mentioned in "Ghost at Twilight" in Part Nineteen "The morning sun…").


	44. Part Four: "Unless there are..."

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**"Unless there are…"**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

i.

"Unless there are pressing matters which can't wait until tomorrow, I have to go now."

She has already turned away from him, taking, one, two, then three increasingly faster steps towards La Fenice as she repeats to him all the reasons why she needs to run back to her singer at once, and Shinichi wonders whether Ai has listened to him at all when he explained the case to her. Her (fake?) boyfriend or even husband, as she has called Seiya, must have poisoned an old friend of hers in cold blood (at some point, Tenoh must have been a friend of Ai's despite their recent falling-out)—and all Ai can think of is that she needs to attend the opening night of the musical.

"The musical means to him the same as the case means to you," she claims, apparently unaware of how ridiculous the comparison was. "Why can't you see how much it would hurt him if I didn't come?"

That's it—her question was the last straw which broke the camel's back! In a fit of rage, Shinichi scraps his plan of distracting Ai until she misses the musical. Why can't she see how much it hurts him that she turns him down for a musical and a singer whom she has been seeing almost every day in the past four years? Did she take him for a case-solving robot without emotions and feelings, whom she could just toss a clue and then expect to follow the trail like a well-trained English Setter?

Shinichi can't even tell why Ai hasn't bothered to mention the card with Akira's name until now. On the contrary, she seems not in the least interested in what Shinichi is going to do with it. Shinichi once thought that he couldn't read Ai because she has changed, but now he wonders whether it was him who has changed and finally realized that he has never known her at all.

"I only have a few questions before you go," he says coldly, wondering why she looks so bewildered and lost—almost as if she couldn't tell why he is so beside himself. "Who, in your opinion, has murdered Tenoh?"

"No one!" Since Ai doesn't display the slightest sign of anxiety or hesitation, Shinichi suspects that she has already prepared herself for this question or is honestly convinced that Tenoh wasn't murdered. "Everyone liked her. Even Seiya liked her, in his own way. _She_ was the one who always hurt others by being herself at all times, doing and saying whatever she wanted, trying to change the world without giving a damn about the feelings of other people."

"Whose feelings has she hurt except for Seiya's?" Shinichi decides to take Ai's assertion with a grain of salt since Ai is clearly biased and Tenoh seemed fairly sensible compared to Ai's maverick singer.

"Only mine when she tried to separate us." Her smile, almost imperceptible in the shifting light of the sunset, is followed by a little wink, both of which trigger in him a confusing wave of euphoria. "I suppose you'll have to add me to your list of suspects now."

"Don't worry, you _are_ already on my list of suspects!" If she absolutely wants to play this game with him, he might as well play it with her. If she doesn't want the friend, he will give her the detective. Brushing aside the unpleasant thought that he doesn't have the right to behave like a jilted ex towards her, Shinichi continues in a more neutral tone, "What about Tenoh's relationship with Kaioh? Was Tenoh unfaithful or thoughtless? The public seems to believe that she had an affair with you."

"Kaioh-san knew that there was nothing like that between us. Even if Tenoh had been unfaithful—which I don't believe—Kaioh-san would have been the last person to murder her."

Despite her shawl, wool dress, tights, and trench coat, Ai is freezing in the cool autumn wind. Knowing that she wouldn't accept his jacket, Shinichi takes her elbow to lead her to Al Theatro.

"You're cold." He makes a last attempt to change her mind although he can sense that it will be futile. "Let's warm up with a cup of tea. You can return to him when the musical begins." Swallowing his pride, he resorts to mild pressure. "I'm going to meet up with commissario Carrara at Kaioh's place to study Tenoh's belongings and the Sherlock Holmes painting. It's likely that the theatre has returned it to Kaioh now that Tenoh's dressing room has been emptied to make space for the musical cast. If I find evidence against Seiya, I'd like to show them to you before I talk to commissario Carrara."

In brutally honest words: Do cooperate if you want to save your singer's neck! But Ai, being the difficult woman she is, stays unimpressed.

"That's a matter which _can_ wait until tomorrow! You can take photos of them to show me later if you like." She flashes him an encouraging, expectant smile. "Any other questions before I go?"

"Is Chiba Usagi's group of friends, to which Tenoh belonged, a vigilante group?" From Ai's expression, Shinichi deduces in satisfaction that he has touched a nerve. "Maeda Satoru, Ran's karate idol, accidentally gave Tenoh away during our talk. He said, 'Tenoh-san was someone who understood it—the ridiculous limitations our society puts on us not to dispense justice but to maintain the status quo.'"

After giving her a concise account of Kino's phone call to her friends and Mizuno's Night Baron virus, Shinichi concludes, "From what I've seen, it's likely that Tenoh or her friends have informed Sayama Akiko about Ebara's deeds although I think murdering Ebara was Sayama's personal revenge and that Tenoh's vigilante group wasn't directly linked to the Night Baron murder. But how did Mizuno Ami come into the possession of the Night Baron? After the Organization went down, no one could access the files in the Organization's clouds since no one could get past it. Whenever the FBI tried to access a codename member's laptop, the Night Baron struck and deleted all the files, so Jodie-san told me."

Pandora's Box, once activated, would send the Night Baron virus to all the codename members' mail accounts and be downloaded automatically—M Jean Black informed Shinichi when they met in Paris. But when Shinichi, Ai, and Hattori were on the ship, they couldn't find anything on the computer which would have activated the Night Baron.

After Shinichi left to get help, Hattori must have continued to study the files, and resourceful as Hattori was, Hattori might have discovered sensitive information. Now that Hattori is dead, Ai is the only person left who has spent a few hours on the ship unless Gin has survived. Until now, it does seem that Ai is the sole survivor of the Pandora's Box affair—a fact which Shinichi finds most alarming.

"Mizuno-san doesn't have the Night Baron. What she sent you was probably only the Night Baron copy, which isn't nearly as powerful as the original. When they were fourteen or fifteen, Tsukino Usagi's friends formed a small vigilante group and accidentally stumbled over the Organization's weapon deals. They soon realized that they couldn't win and stopped fighting against the Organization after a friend of theirs was killed. Usagi-san only survived because Seiya saved her." Taking Shinichi's elbow, Ai regards Shinichi with a long, thoughtful gaze. "I don't think you should talk to any of them about that phase. No one wants to be reminded of a project which ended in failure and death."

i.

"That's one good reason more to talk to _you_ about it," Shinichi argues, staggered by Ai's sudden amiable behaviour towards him as they are walking arm in arm in the direction of La Fenice. "Do you know who was killed by the Organization? And how did they learn about the existence of the Night Baron virus?"

She didn't know the name of the boy who lost his life, only that he was a friend and ardent admirer of Hino Rei, who was working at Hikawa Shrine. As for the Night Baron virus, it was discovered by Meioh Setsuna during the time she worked as Professor Tomoe's assistant. "I told you Meioh-san is very intelligent, and Professor Tomoe has always been a dangerously talkative scatterbrain. It didn't take Meioh-san long to discover how the Night Baron worked. Recreating the virus, on the other hand, was so difficult that she worked on the project for three years and then scrapped it to focus on her studies and raising Hotaru-chan."

"Did Seiya belong to their group?"

"No, he didn't." Ai's faint smile broadens. "Seiya is a real loner in that aspect, just like his two brothers." Aino Minako, Kino Makoto, Hino Rei, and Mizuno Ami belonged to Chiba Usagi née Tsukino Usagi's group—Ai informs Shinichi. Tenoh Haruka, Meioh Setsuna, and Kaioh Michiru were each other's best friends at Infinity (in Tenoh's and Kaioh's case, the friendship had already developed into a relationship although they were still hiding it from the public), and the three of them met Tsukino Usagi's group of friends by chance on the track since Aino Minako was a fan of Tenoh's when Tenoh was still a racer.

"But it surprises me that Mizuno-san has sent you the Night Baron copy and wiped out your whole hard drive, which is a rather mean prank although you surely deserved it," remarks Ai in passing. "I know Mizuno-san personally since she is taking care of Seiya's apartment in Azabu Juuban for us and often visits Kino-san in Venice. Mizuno-san is very calm and considerate, absolutely not a person who would take revenge on you for spying on her friends—at least not in this way. She is also the verbose, serious type that needs to discuss everything. It wouldn't surprise me if she directly confronts you when she comes to Venice to attend Tenoh's funeral."

"There is the saying that 'still waters run deep,'" Shinichi chuckles. "Coincidentally, that's also the name of the file to which Mizuno Ami, the 'beauty of water', attached the Night Baron copy."

"Ah, I see… Indeed, 'still waters run deep!'" Ai echoes in a low voice as a satisfied, slightly amused smile plays on her lips; and Shinichi can tell with certainty that Ai doesn't believe that Mizuno Ami was the sender of the Night Baron copy although Ai doesn't seem inclined to tell him who the real sender is.

i.

* * *

 

 _The Z-Files of Detective Boy Holmes_ , the mystery series which should have been translated as _The Secret Casebook of Young Sherlock Holmes_ , was the victim of a truly idiotic translation mistake. Angela's Japanese wasn't great at that time, and the translator must have been wasted or stoned when she suggested the title—but other people must have been temporarily demented as well since there was no way that this wacky name would have stuck to the series otherwise! And though the fierce, dedicated director of the acclaimed Sherlock Holmes parody, which won several awards, tried to move heaven and hell and also flamed the moron of a translator afterwards, her serious, high-brow Sherlock Holmes series got famous under this most unfitting title, which couldn't be changed due to the weirdest bureaucratic problems (one of the many odd and mysterious difficulties which the series suddenly encountered ever since Three Lights became part of the crew).

Someone immensely powerful must have played a prank on them—but no one could tell who it was. Yaten and Seiya, unfazed by all circumstances, had only laughed out loud when Angela declared that, if she were paranoid, she would have suspected an evil syndicate or even the interference of Satan (Taiki, the quiet one, only gave her his usual blade-thin smile before he focused on his book). But after ten years and many hours of praying and repentance, Angela Gray aka Gushiken Akane, devoted Christian, film director, choreographer, and dance teacher, has come to accept _Detective Boy Holmes_ as it was—one of her pet projects which turned out quite different than what she wanted it to be although many changes were happy accidents, in Saki's opinion.

_You know why you're here with me? Because it's always the leader of the mob and not the mob that deserves punishment! Why are you sabotaging my work as if we were enemies? You must learn to pick your fights and swallow your pride, Young Moriarty!_

_What are you talking about? I haven't done anything!_ Seiya flashed her his pure angel's smile which, under different circumstances (and if she had been less angry), would have made her knees weak. _Look,_ I _'m actually the only one here who is trying to work seriously!_ He flipped through his pocket-sized screenplay and even dared to give her a mischievous wink. _I'm only trying to get into the role of Young Moriarty, just as you taught me!_ Sticking his head out of the window, in front of which half the crew of _Detective Boy Holmes_ were still immersed in their most recent street brawl, he cheerily shouted, _Go, Yaten! Go, Taiki! Our rich sponsor's kid likes another round!_

Even now, Angela still suffers from a sense of humiliation when people on the street recognize her as "the director of _Detective Boy Holmes_ " despite the great success and critical acclaim the series have brought her. And since Angela has always been a reclusive person, who refuses to give interviews, she is selfishly glad that the reporters were too distracted by Saki to see that the ("notoriously hot-headed and tough") director of _Detective Boy Holmes_ has come to Venice with Itabashi Saki, _Naked_ 's star photographer.

Shizuka, who is still working as Seiya's long-suffering agent, has told Angela that Yaten and Taiki are flying to Venice to see Seiya on Sunday, which Angela interpreted as an invitation to come to Venice as well. As might be expected, Shizuka didn't dare to suggest the idea to Angela, who never allows other people to plan her holidays for her, but it was understood that the occasion couldn't be more favourable. At the time of Shizuka's (dramatic, lengthy) phone call, Angela was holidaying in Rome or rather on a pilgrimage to Rome, which was Yumemi's favourite city and the one Yumemi visited before she died. Rei—Angela's all-time favourite female student—will be singing Christine at La Fenice in the _Phantom of the Opera_ production of Angela's cousin, whose athlete daughter is visiting her ex-girlfriend Kaioh Michiru at the moment. Three Lights—Angela's all-time favourite male idols—will also be together again in Venice, where they will hopefully not get into any of the fights which Seiya always attracts in New York, which makes this the ideal occasion for a long-overdue reunion.

"Finally—the reporters have left us alone at last!" sighs Saki as she flops into her chair after taking photos of Al Theatro's interior. "Imagine the commotion if they'd recognized _you_! But of course no one could identify you in these clothes since you're always running around in tomboyish jazz dance attire or your nunlike white rags. You should let your Bad-Akane and Good-Angela personas dress up like this more often!"

"Who is always running around in tomboyish attire?" Although they were half-sisters, Saki is the very opposite of Yumemi if one ignores the long French braid—the only similarity they shared. Yumemi was always dressed pragmatically and unobtrusively—perhaps because she saw herself primarily as an illustrator and plein air painter, who should be more concerned with the beauty around her than with her own looks—but Yumemi was feminine at all times while Saki, despite her feminine face, might as well be a young man with braided long hair.

"How could I hunt for the best snapshots if I were always tripping over my high heels? I've pressed myself into these girly clothes for once just for the sake of the disguise—hell, I'm even wearing a push-up bra! But didn't help at all since the journalists have identified me regardless—"

"Because your voice was so loud it was impossible for them not to notice you, as always! You shouldn't have mentioned _Reunion in Venice_ while the reporters who had come to interview Seiya were in the vicinity. Of course they would recognize your face since they know you've often worked with Yaten."

The waiter has just arrived with their order, and both of them remain silent until he leaves. Afterwards, Saki greedily downs her fresh orange juice in one gulp (years of socializing with celebrities and reporters haven't managed to change Saki's manners although they have eliminated her Osakan accent completely)—but Angela, who is just as thirsty as Saki, has to wait for two to three minutes until her green tea is ready.

"So, how, do you think, will it feel to see your beloved 'Prodigal Son' again after eight years?" asks Saki. "Seiya must have changed very much if he has a steady girlfriend now. How did you call the three boys? Wandering stars or shooting stars? It was impossible to imagine them with girlfriends since all they cared about were their independence and their foster sister."

"Seiya isn't my 'prodigal son'," Angela corrects her. "Prodigal sons return to their elders after losing themselves to the seductions of the world. Seiya has never been seduced because he always knew exactly what he wanted; and I don't think the boy will ever come crawling back to anyone—not even to me."

"The girlfriend seems to have him around her little finger, though. Must be a real dragon, so I've heard! But I admire women who can manage their boyfriends, especially when the boyfriend is as wild as Seiya. It's a pity that we've arrived too late to see her."

"Don't worry, she'll be around when we visit Seiya and Rei in their dressing rooms after the musical. One always attends the opening night if the singer in the main role is one's boyfriend. That's a question of manners and good taste—and Shizuka said Shiho is a very fine girl although she wishes that Seiya has never met her."

"And then there is Rei, who will be the loveliest Christine who has ever been onstage! Sadly, the girl has absolutely no sex appeal at all in contrast to her minx of a roommate!"

"You know, I'm really looking forward to seeing Rei again." Angela instinctively touches the gold cross around her neck. "She seems to do well now, which is a blessing."

The last time Angela met Hino Rei, who was easily the nicest, warmest girl of the all-girls school where Angela taught, the beautiful miko of Hikawa Shrine was mourning a good friend's death. Kumada Yuuichirou, who was an apprentice of Rei's grandfather and who spent most of his time there pining for the dark and distant beauty instead of focusing on work, had just passed away after a terrible freak accident on the stairs of Hikawa Shrine. Miraculously, Yuuichirou saved Rei's life (and, consequently, Rei's grandfather's life) while he died. Although it was already bedtime, the lovesick boy had dialled Rei's number before he tumbled down the stairs, whereupon the young miko, who always slept "like a rock," according to her best friend's accounts, was woken up by the persistent ringing of her phone and noticed that Hikawa Shrine was burning.

"I like the girl—straight arrows like Rei are rare—but I'm looking forward to seeing Seiya more," Saki admits. "Do you remember what I said during the audition, when he entered the room and everyone went silent? I said—"

"'Fascinating, those eyes,'" Angela, who can still remember Saki's exclamation, recites. "Like Irene Adler's colour-change sapphire."

i.

 


	45. Part Four: She can remember...

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**She can remember…**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

i.

She can remember the first time they met as clearly as if it was a movie which she had personally directed. The three Kou brothers, so Akane had been warned by Igarashi Kenji, Shizuka's father, were exceptionally pretty. Generally, natural beauty was advantageous for an acting career; and for the role of a leading man, charisma and attractiveness (not to be mistaken with conventionally good looks although a handsome appearance is definitely a plus) had become a minimum requirement in the acting world. On the other hand, it could be problematic to cast up-and-coming teenage heartthrobs like Three Lights in _Detective Boy Holmes_ without turning the series into another cheap teenage franchise featuring pretty airheads… Anyhow, since the tiny possibility exists that Three Lights did have charisma and acting talent, Angela decided to have a look at them.

The setting of their first encounter was the audition for the advertisement of the unsavoury Galaxia's Golden Sunkissed Bun (a dish which the devil himself must have invented!), which Saki also attended and to which Three Lights, Kenji, and Shizuka had been invited. Angela, dressed in her nunlike clothes, in which almost no one recognized her, was going to test the young men separately before the audition for _Detective Boy Holmes_ and pretend that she wasn't interested in them at all in case the recent local hype had spoilt them and made them lazy. All eyes were fastened on Seiya the moment he stepped into the room; and next to Angela, Saki began to fuss with her camera like a maniac. _Look, Akane-san!_ Saki enthusiastically shoved her new camera into Seiya's face, jamming her elbows into Angela's temple in her eagerness to get a close-up of the singer, and gushed about his fascinating eyes, which, in Saki's words, were "like Irene Adler's colour-change sapphire."

Angela, who had already studied Kou Seiya's photos before she attended the audition, had naturally noticed the idol's haunting, moody blue eyes, whose shifting colour conjured up images of the sea or the sky and could become as dark and chilly as a rainy night or as bright and intense as a blue fire. But what really impressed Angela wasn't the glaring, girly gorgeousness of the kid (as a closet romantic, Angela preferred male actors with the sort of subtle, unobtrusive handsomeness which didn't burn and hurt)—Angela was awed by Seiya's absence of anxiety and fear, which most aspiring teenage actors displayed (or at least had to suppress) whenever they saw her. This amateur actor's smiling eyes, however, were gazing at everyone and everything with insatiable curiosity and pride. _Here I am, world, and I'm going to express myself!_ Seiya might as well have said. _Veni, vidi, vici!_ Angela wouldn't have been surprised if the boy had informed her during the audition that he had set out to conquer the universe.

Amiably waiting for Saki to take his photos, Seiya languidly let his eyes roam the room and returned the adoring smiles, all of which were directed at him. The deep black curls, which defied Saki's combs, and the long silky eyelashes gave the kid a rakish, womanizing look although his features were still delicate and far too noble for the role of a crook. The choreographer in Angela also didn't fail to take notice of the boy's classical ballet dancer's body—the long neck and limbs and defined but slender muscles, to say nothing of his graceful carriage and his easy movements, the result of a natural aptitude combined with great awareness and regular training. A Byronic hero with Dorian Gray's face and an angel's smile, who carries himself with aplomb, Angela thought. This was her Young Moriarty and Irene Adler's Godfrey Norton!

For a whole year, Angela had been searching for an actor and dancer who could be Lucifer as well as Michael, Apollo as well as Prodigal Son, the protagonist of _Le Baiser de la fée_ as well as the Swan Lake prince, an honourable Young Sherlock Holmes as well as a manipulative Professor Moriarty. Angela wanted Kou Seiya for her series, but at the same time, she was afraid of messing up. A boy with a face like Seiya's shouldn't play Sherlock Holmes (it would only help perpetuate the myth that greatness always went hand in hand with physical beauty); but Angela could also foresee that Seiya could ruin her series if she cast him as Young Moriarty, as the audience was easily seduced. Lucifer was said to have been the very seal of perfection and the most beautiful angel of all—but there were pragmatic reasons why the devil was seldom played by attractive actors in movies. James Moriarty, the personification of darkness in _Detective Boy Holmes_ , would come across to the unsuspecting audience as "amusing" and "cool".

 _Your reasons for this audition, and a good reason why I should hire you!_ Angela barked, hiding her indecisiveness behind her strict Gushiken-sensei's voice since she sensed that she shouldn't show any sign of weakness in front of the crew.

_I'm extremely talented, super-competent, drop-dead gorgeous, flat broke, and will do almost anything for money!_

The many photos hadn't prepared Angela for the sound of his voice, and Angela comprehended for the first time in her life why Christine Daaé needed Raoul's help to free herself from the Phantom's spell. At the same time, Angela wasn't so blind that she couldn't see that Seiya, like the Phantom, was well aware of the perilous attractiveness of his voice. Smiling at her with divine nonchalance, the wayward kid acknowledged her astonishment and admiration, which she couldn't hide, with casual grace and took all for granted as if it didn't mean anything.

 _I see you're the proud one!_ Angela observed, looking Seiya up and down with her most condescending smirk pasted on her lips. _And pride, my dear, is the deadliest of the cardinal sins!_

 _No, it isn't_ , Seiya returned, fixing her eyes with his serious, unwaveringly nonchalant gaze. _The deadliest sin is stupidity! And you, my dear_ , he imitated her smirk, her gestures, her voice, and her way of speaking so perfectly that Angela reddened and blanched, _don't look so stupid that you couldn't swallow your pride and hire me!_

Seiya's breathtaking insolence and his cheeky parting grin as he glided out of the room must have prepared Angela for the impertinence of his two older foster brothers although Taiki's brand of rudeness was just bearable. For a moment, Angela was tempted to offer Taiki the role of Young Sherlock Holmes without waiting until the audition since Taiki had everything she liked about Seiya and none of Seiya's annoying seductiveness and rebelliousness. Kou Taiki wasn't only elegant and handsome, he was also self-aware, confident, calm, and fiercely intelligent—the ideal actor to play the greatest consulting detective of British literature.

To Angela's anger, Taiki told her that he wouldn't star in the commercial movie for Galaxia's Golden Sunkissed Bun, much less in _Detective Boy Holmes_ , without his two brothers. In return, Seiya and Yaten weren't going to accept the movie offer without him either. When Angela gave the stoical middle Kou brother a sample of Galaxia's Golden Sunkissed Bun to taste (it must have been her petty revenge for Taiki's comment that he would always support his siblings since he liked being on the winning side when she informed him that his youngest brother was an arrogant jerk), Taiki only grimaced.

 _Promoting such a singularly revolting dish will be a great challenge_ , he dryly commented as he gave her his civil, distant smile. _But since we three like challenges very much and have often adapted to worse situations than this one, I can assure you that we'll be fine._

Yaten's diva attitude, in contrast, wasn't only the tip of the iceberg but the iceberg itself. When he entered the room, the oldest brother, who was also the prettiest and best-dressed of the three, sneezed, yawned until tears brimmed in his eyes, and sighed simultaneously—managing to convey the impression that he would rather be anywhere but here. Since he had the loveliest face Saki had ever seen ( _Look, look, Akane-san! This is Irene's face—a face to die for!_ ) and she found his frail, feminine looks refreshing ( _Look, look, Akane-san, the boy looks like a real princess!_ ), Saki jumped into Yaten's way to take photos. But instead of being flattered by the attention, the jerk unceremoniously snatched Saki's new camera, took out the roll film, and smashed the camera twice against the wall.

 _Not while I'm yawning!_ Yaten hissed and narrowed his green eyes, looking the very image of a cat whose nap had just been disturbed by a stranger's unwelcome display of affection. _Haven't you read the conditions my agent sent? You're allowed to take_ any photo of me _for_ Naked _, I can even_ get naked _for you in front of the camera if you crave it, but_ no one, absolutely no one, idiot, _takes a photo of me while I'm_ yawning _!_

Angela was about to dismiss Yaten instantly (thinking that the neurotic brat should consider himself lucky if Saki didn't sue him for his outburst), but Saki only grabbed the broken camera and the roll film and dashed like an athlete of Elza's level to her bag.

 _You're wonderful!_ Saki shouted after producing her spare camera. _What a splendid, honest display of pure, undiluted, righteous anger! It's rare to find so much primal aggressiveness juxtaposed with such a nice, gentle face! If you don't want to share your precious yawning face with the rest of the world, please let me keep the photos of it for my own pleasure!_

Like any sensible director would have done, Angela decided not to hire any of the Kou brothers. One should know one's limits, and these raw diamonds were too rough even for Angela's taste. But Saki, persistent as she was, begged Angela to reconsider her decision—even showed Angela the photos Saki had shot and the song Seiya had written. During a sleepless, starry, starry night, when Angela was in a jovial, mellow mood, Angela decided that there was a grain of truth in Seiya's statement since she could just swallow her pride and hire the three talented rogues.

i.

Galaxia's Golden Sunkissed Bun, despite its "singularly revolting" taste, sold surprisingly well and had just begun to revolutionize the young generation's untrained palate when a reporter overheard Kou Yaten calling the bun a "sugar-coated, honey-filled load of shit," which spelled the doom of the popular bun. (Luckily, Galaxia didn't dare to sue Yaten for fear that the ingredients of the buns would be analyzed in court.) _That one,_ shouted Gushiken Akane—Angela's tomboyish choreographer persona—a few days later, when Three Lights auditioned for _Detective Boy Holmes_. _Unless his acting stinks_ —she shot Seiya a challenging glance— _I want_ him _as Young Moriarty and Godfrey Norton!_

Akane firmly believed that every kid deserved a chance in life—and a boy like Seiya should learn that pride usually came before the fall. When she started her dancer's career at the tender age of ten, Akane resolved that she would live up to her name and become the guardian angel who helped the lost souls find their rightful place in the world. Society, a cruel and despotic teacher, always destroyed the exceptional talents that couldn't fit into it. Wherever mediocrity thrived, genius, as a rule, would die. Literature was swamped with examples of them—the most gifted, most beautiful souls that should have stayed in heaven but eventually lost to their own passions and inadequacies when they failed to control themselves. It wouldn't be easy but Akane was sure that she would succeed. After all, Yukiko's son Shinichi, too, was a spoiled brat of the worst order until she met him.

i.

Akane soon had to admit that Three Lights were a lost case. There were too many reasons to count, but the greatest obstacle was their total lack of interest in adapting. The rascals didn't need anything but the fee and didn't trust anyone apart from themselves. They didn't make the slightest effort to socialize (dragging them to parties was like pulling teeth!); they mocked everything what Akane and the crew deemed normal and rational; and they were all openly, unabashedly in love with their eternally absent, eternally elusive foster sister, whose nanny sometimes sent photos of the family dogs: the Miniature Poodle Yaten, the Border Collie Taiki, and the Doberman Pinscher Seiya.

Once Akane asked Seiya about his free Sunday with his sister, and Seiya told Akane that Taiki (the Border Collie), who had taken after Seiya instead of his namesake, had herded the cooks and eaten all the rice. While Seiya narrated the story, Seiya was glowing with pride as though the canine were his and his sister's lovechild.

In the breaks, Taiki was glued to his laptop to stalk the chats of two anime fans on Livestream. And the only explanation he offered Akane when she asked him why he would waste his rare free time in such a manner was that reading the gossips of the two Gintama fans was 'interesting'.

One day, Yaten, who usually ignored anyone who wasn't part of his family, returned to the set with a black cat, whom he had lured away from the neighbourhood because Seiya, who had randomly lied to the reporters, claimed that Three Lights had a pet. Yaten doted on the vicious kitten as though it were a queen, and it took Akane some effort and time to convince him that he should return it to its rightful owners.

The three idiots (and most probably their foster sister as well) behaved as if they had been raised on another planet, which was governed by other laws. If they hadn't been so absurdly talented, Akane would have fired them right away! As things were, Akane stuck by them through thick and thin and watched in horror how they—or rather Young Moriarty—hijacked her _Detective Boy_ series.

The trouble started with "A Scandal in Bohemia," with the John-Mary love scenes and the nasty camera operator (Takeo Shiro's son, who was talented but slightly sadistic, savoured the two inexperienced actor's nervousness like a tasty dish and taunted them about their few inadequacies whenever possible). Despite Takeo Junior's abusive behaviour, which Akane had to tolerate since Shiro, who was an important sponsor, adored his offspring, Noriko and Yaten did fairly well considering their lack of experience. After a thousand failed takes for another love scene (which were fairly good but not good enough), however, Taiki and Seiya dropped the bomb on Akane.

 _Yaten, is it true that you're only fifteen?_ Akane pulled at her hair until she accidentally ripped off her favourite headband. _Why did you lie to me about this? Fifteen—my ass! Fifteen!_ Three Lights had hidden their real age well until Taiki and Seiya, who had found out that those R-rated scenes would be illegal if the actors were underage, decided that Yaten could no longer "suffer the torture of filming the redundant John-Mary scenes." _We've wasted weeks and weeks on these thousand-and-one clips and now I'll have to throw out all of them! We could even be sued for this now that we've already aired a few—no, come to think of it, I should sue_ you _!_

Why should it make a difference for her, Yaten asked Akane in surprise. Being fifteen was "such a pain" while being eighteen meant having the freedom to decide over one's own life. Three Lights didn't lie about their age to ruin Akane's series—they only lied so that they wouldn't have to cope with the bureaucracy.

 _You mean I wouldn't have had to do these love scenes at all if you had known that I was fifteen?_ Yaten exclaimed when it finally dawned on him what Akane was saying. Despite his intelligence and his pronunciation, which revealed a cultured upbringing, the boy knew nothing about film ratings.

 _Where are your parents?_ Akane demanded, whereupon the kid only gave her a blank look. _Any mentors or relatives? Apart from Kenji, you three_ must _have_ someone _who is in charge of you!_

No one was in charge of them, Kenji admitted when she broke into his apartment that night and threatened to sue him if he didn't let her talk with the parents of the brats. The millionaire parents didn't even want to know how their kids were doing—after locating them, Kenji had tried to contact them more than once but all to no avail. As for Three Lights' age, Kenji would never have guessed that they were only fifteen since they had faked their papers. Now Kenji and Akane would have to rack their brains for a way to clean up the mess and send the three boys to school.

Naturally, Akane could have sued the Kou couple for kicking out their kids and replacing them with dogs—but Akane neither had the money nor the time, nor the motivation to do it, especially not when the people she had to fight against were the type of millionaires that possessed a whole isle. Three Lights had become famous and popular in the meantime and could take care of themselves. Hence Akane had to swallow her pride again and let the remaining John-Mary love scenes go by the board without as much as a farewell.

The love scenes, however, continued to haunt the set. Real problems were always directly or indirectly connected to the evil influence of money, or romantic love, or power, or (like it was in this case) a mix of all the three. It must have been love, which started it: Okamachi Noriko was entertaining an epic unrequited love for Kou Yaten—and the explicit love scenes they had done together seemed to have blinded Noriko to the vast gulf between them, which Noriko would have seen and felt if she hadn't been encouraged by the fact that the gloomy Light had been simulating marital delight with her so often.

_Yaten, do you have plans for Saturday night? Alice has given me free tickets for her next concert, and I wondered if you and your brothers are interested in jazz…_

_Seiya is over there!_ Yaten yawned and indicated his youngest brother (who, lounging in the Green Room, was working his charm on Alice, the series' Irene Adler). _I'm only going to warn you that you don't stand a chance! Itsuki-san already crashed and burned when she tried although she is a much better match for him than you._

Blinded or rather deafened by her consuming infatuation, Noriko only laughed and fiddled with her long, dark auburn hair.

 _I actually wanted to ask_ you _if you have time to go with me. Let's make this a date! You really owe me one after our "partnership."_

From the nearby bench where Akane was sitting with Taiki, who was trying to memorize the hundred-eighteen-thousandth (or was it the hundred-nineteen-thousandth?) digit of pi, Akane could discern the flicker of compassion in Yaten's eyes during his moment of hesitation before he flipped his hair and sighed.

 _Listen, I'll tell you the ugly truth now so that you won't lose time over something so hopeless and dumb! I don't like you at all—our "partnership" was only well-simulated! I don't think I could manage even an ounce of interest in you and your fussy, cutesy style even if I wanted to try—which I don't! If someone pointed a gun at me and forced me to make a choice, I'd rather take an old, deaf_ and _dumb hag who doesn't smell like a giant bag of cotton candy and vanilla ice like you always do. So stay away from me, let go of me, and forget about me, for heaven's sake! And do weigh up the pros and cons the next time you feel this unfortunate urge to ask someone out so that you won't publicly embarrass yourself like this!_

A few minutes later, when a tearful Noriko was trying to convey her impression to Yaten that his dismissal was "the rudest rejection ever" and that he couldn't seriously mean all the things he just told her, Seiya arrived on the scene.

 _Here, for you!_ murmured Seiya in his Godfrey Norton voice and, presenting Alice's sapphire ring with a flourish to his oldest brother, who was now staring at the unexpected present with a lovestruck expression on his face, added, _Irene!_

 _Thank you!_ Yaten, who usually never said anything nice or enthusiastic to anyone, threw his arms around Seiya's waist, ignoring Noriko, who was staring at the two of them in speechless incredulity. _Seiya, I'm touched! Thank you so much for buying it for me! I'll never forget what you've done!_

 

i.

"You know what, Angie-Akane, I think the crisis on the set of _Detective Boy Holmes_ would never have blown up like it did if Takeo Junior and his friends hadn't suddenly started to bully Yaten," Saki tells Angela after ordering their snacks. "But I admit I was rolling on the floor laughing when I learned about the rumours! I'd have sacrificed my best camera to get a close-up of Yaten's face when he read in the news that two of the Three Lights were gay!"

"I know Seiya only defended his brother—but I still pity Takeo's son."

"How could you! I, for my part, don't pity the cretin at all!" After taking photos of the potato chips which the waiter had just brought, Saki began to stuff herself. "You know," she declared as she was chewing on the potato chips, and Angela almost admired her for talking with her mouth full without looking in the least disgusting, "I don't believe in this 'losing yourself in a role' theory! I think Seiya has always been Young Moriarty whether he played the part or not although it was easier for him to explode when he was playing such a dark role! He disliked to be controlled—and like most mentors who care too much about their students, you've tried too hard to control him."

"Well, then we can relax because I'm not trying to control him now!" Slightly hurt by Saki's remark, Angela chose to change the topic. "Why did you tell the reporters that _Reunion in Venice_ was only a working title?"

 _Reunion in Venice_ , which will illustrate a second chance meeting between Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler in La Serenissima, the city of love and death, was supposed to be a series of romantic shots, Saki explained. She got the idea when she talked to a fanatic Sherlock Holmes fan, who went into a rage when she suggested that the great detective might have been secretly in love with Irene Adler. "It was clear as day to me after reading the story, especially if one considers the Victorian writing tradition and Watson's voice—but somehow those fans try to deny the very possibility of it! 'The naked truth about Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes!' That would be a great theme for a Venetian photo series in _Naked_ , you see!"

Sherlock Holmes, upon encountering his ideal woman again, would have to struggle with unfamiliar romantic feelings, which he couldn't accept because they didn't fit into his rational world view. Here she was, again: _the woman_ , who was now married to another and thus completely out of his reach, radiant and unobtainable like a forbidden jewel, whose strange, shifting colour he would love to explore! Saki wanted to see Seiya as Sherlock Holmes and Yaten as Irene Adler—the very idea of this outrageous, incestuous choice excited Saki so much that she could hardly focus on anything else. And yet… She couldn't tell why she was dissatisfied with the title, Saki admitted in frustration. Every time she said it aloud, she had the feeling that something was off although she couldn't tell what.

"A 'reunion' sounds like a meeting between close friends or ex-lovers, which Sherlock and Irene aren't," Angela explains, wondering why things which seem so obvious to her are often overlooked by Saki and vice versa. "If Watson and Holmes or, in the case of _The Phantom of the Opera_ , Erik and Christine met each other again—well, that would be a 'reunion!' Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler don't know each other at all—they have encountered each other before and admired each other's skills, but they haven't really seen the other person's real face before she disappeared. Instead of 'reunion', you'll have to choose another word! A word which really means 'a chance meeting'."

Another word for "chance meeting"? Saki pulls out her mobile phone to search her thesaurus app. "Certainly not 'contact', 'rendezvous', or 'tryst'… There is only one word which fits like a glove! You're an angel, Akane! I'm going to replace 'reunion' with 'encounter' since it sounds so much better!"

"But 'encounter' is dangerously ambiguous, isn't it? It conjures up images of, well, you know, encounters of another sort…"

Saki laughed and shook her head at Angela's hesitation, murmuring that she likes the tough and wild Akane persona so much more than Angela, the prude, and declares that it was exactly the reason why she chose it. "'Encounter' leaves all the options open—that's exactly the beauty of it!" Giving in to her enthusiasm, Saki threw her arms into the air and cried in her loud, boyish voice, "I'm going to call _Naked_ 's autumn photo series _Encounter in Venice_!"

i.

 


	46. Part Four: "Like the phoenix..."

 

x.

_Starry, starry night_

_Paint your palette blue and gray_

_Look out on a summer's day_

_With eyes that know the darkness in my soul_

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

* * *

 

**"Like the phoenix…"**

_(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)_

i.

" _Like the phoenix I am reborn_

_And I'm soaring high_

_The old paths I'm walking anew_

_Stronger than before_

_I'm spreading my wings_

_And I'm gazing proudly about myself_

_And I'm never going to cower again_

_No, never, never, never, never, never…_ "

A few European tourists (probably of Dutch origin), who are cheerfully taking turns snapping photos of each other in front of the theatre house, are singing an unknown song, whose memory must have been sparked by the meaning of La Fenice's name, and Ai automatically turns her head towards the source of the music. The song is too lavish a praise for the opera house, Shinichi remarks in annoyance, wondering why Ai can't give him her undivided attention like she used to do four years ago. La Fenice, ostentatiously sumptuous in its interior arrangements like most historic buildings in Venice, looks rather modest and unimpressive from the outside with its simple box-shaped facade. Only the emblem with its reddish-golden bird (which is supposed to be a splendid hybrid of an eagle and a dragon but only resembles a pitiful crossbreed between a goose and a peacock to Shinichi's eyes) alludes to the colourful phoenix, the mythical bird with golden, red, or sapphire-blue eyes, which is associated with the rising sun and has often been interpreted as a symbol of resurrection and time.

"It's not too lavish a praise for Milady, though." Noticing that Shinichi doesn't know the song, Ai flashes him an enchanting smile, which Shinichi, suspicious of her intentions, beholds with mistrust although its startling sight takes his breath away. "They're singing 'Milady is back' from the modern version of _The Three Musketeers_. I know it because Seiya has sung the whole musical to me."

The setting sun has cast soft, long shadows on her face and her coat. From beneath her violet shawl, which she has drawn over her ears and her chin as they approached La Fenice, the reddish-brown strands of her loosely curled bangs are dancing in the rising wind, catching the last sunlight of the evening. Her hand, small and delicate, is still resting on his arm; and Shinichi inhales her faint, nostalgic kinmokusei fragrance almost involuntarily when her hair brushes against his cheek as she tilts her head to adjust her shawl and to put her sunglasses, which she has stuck into a buttonhole of her trench coat, into her jacket pocket.

It's most impressive how Milady de Winter, facing impossible odds, fought for her own happiness, Ai distractedly muses. Even though the female antagonist in _The Three Musketeers_ could be unscrupulous and cruel to her enemies and eventually lost to fate in the end like all fiercely independent literary heroines who had the misfortune to have been born into such a misogynist age, Milady's defeat only elevated her to the status of a tragic anti heroine and turned her into one of the most memorable female antagonists of the world literature…

Ai has been toying with him like a sated cat with a mouse it has accidentally caught but doesn't want to devour! For the first time since he saw her again, Shinichi is struck by the realization that Ai is no longer his ally and might not even be Seiya's, considering that she must be keeping secrets from her singer. Haibara Ai has her own master plan—and like Dumas' unforgettable blonde seductress', Ai's moves, secretive but daring, are barely perceptible among other people's grand schemes.

To all appearances, Ai won't mention the watercolour card with Akira's name before Shinichi addresses the matter. Instead of playing along, Shinichi could just suppress the urge to ask Ai and investigate this case without her help—but either way he is going to lose this game since they both know that he can't resist the compulsion to solve mysteries whereas she has the patience to wait until he asks her.

"You're very mild in your condemnation of a poisoner!" he tells her in his sharpest voice, whereupon she lightly replies that she must admit to be biased, as "Milady de Winter" is the nickname her singer gave her when they met at Tenoh's house. Seiya and his brothers used to play the three musketeers when they were children; and since Seiya believed that neither Constance nor Queen Anne would be a credit to Ai's bad temper, he chose Milady de Winter, which is certainly not nice enough to be taken for an endearment but still flattering enough to stick in her mind, especially since Seiya still repeats it from time to time.

When the image of Seiya's frilled white shirt springs to mind (Shinichi prefers the simple cardigan, which the singer wore before he had to get changed), Shinichi remembers that the shirt is also called "d'Artagnan shirt" or, more fittingly, "musketeer shirt", since it's worn by all the musketeers and not only by d'Artagnan, the celebrated captain of the musketeers and spy of Cardinal Mazarin's, who was featured in a fictionalized biography by de Sandras. D'Artagnan also became the protagonist of Dumas' popular three-part swashbuckling series _The Three Musketeers_ , _Twenty Years Later_ , and _The Vicomte de Bragelonne_ —all of which ended on a rather depressing note although the tragic endings were usually changed in adaptations.

"So which of the musketeers was Seiya? If he was Athos, Count de la Fère, the connection to Milady is obvious." Since Ai claims not to know it although she is wearing her mysterious, pensive expression and gazing gloomily into the distance, Shinichi heartlessly adds, "But that was also the musketeer who killed his wife upon discovering her lies, wasn't it? The relationship between Athos and Milady ended terribly even by Dumas' standards. I don't know even one adaption in which their marriage didn't end in murder or suicide—but nothing can beat the canon ending in terms of disastrousness!"

In the meantime, Ai has removed her hand from Shinichi's arm and pushed her shawl down to her neck. And despite the adult proportions of her face, she resembles the ten-year-old Haibara Ai so much now that the gulf between her behaviour towards him then and her attitude towards him now cuts Shinichi to the quick.

"Well, then I can breathe a sigh of relief that we will never get that disastrous ending, can't I?" She gives him a faint suggestion of a smile. "He will never kill me, no matter what happens, I can assure you!"

"If Tenoh wasn't murdered, it must have been suicide," Shinichi says on a more serious note, changing the topic without a transition since he senses that he has taunted her enough by now. "Did she have a reason to commit suicide?"

"Don't you dare to insinuate something like that when you visit Kaioh-san! No, it must have been an accident since Tenoh-san didn't have a reason to commit suicide: She had a wonderful family and a life partner who adored her, she was extremely talented and extremely affluent, and almost everyone I know was enthralled by her! She was free and could do whatever she wanted, and she wasn't the type to commit suicide, much less in public."

"Could she have been blackmailed and forced to take her own life, then? To protect someone else, for instance." Since Ai doesn't reply and only knits her brows as if she were considering the possibility for the very first time, Shinichi adds, "Sometimes one loves another person more than one's own life—and in Tenoh's case, Tenoh could have committed suicide just to protect Kaioh. It sounds fanciful and not very smart, but even I would do it to protect the woman I love—in certain circumstances, if there is no other way out!" Love is a powerful weapon and deadly in the wrong hands. And now that he is thinking about it, it dawns on Shinichi that this theory would explain how easy it was for the culprit to poison Tenoh although Tenoh was supposed to have been "very smart and very capable of defending herself," according to Hino Rei. It would also account for Tenoh's quick, gentle death and the orderly state of Tenoh's dressing room.

Shinichi's words must have revived an unpleasant memory, as an expression of indignation has flitted across Ai's flushed face like a dark rain cloud. "I'll tell you something about Tenoh Haruka now so that you won't compare yourself to her!" She sighs and takes a deep breath as if she was going to rant for a long time. "During their vigilante phase, when Tenoh-san and Kaioh-san were still at Infinity, they had an agreement: If one of them fell behind for some reason, the other would move on! They took that promise seriously. The greater cause and her own moral principles were what really meant the world to Tenoh-san—and it didn't matter at all whose life was at stake."

"People don't always do what they say," interjects Shinichi. "Actions usually speak louder than words."

Not in the least perturbed by his comment, Ai proceeds with an example: Once Kaioh-san was kidnapped by an up-and-coming street gang, and Tenoh-san's answer when Meioh-san asked her whether (or rather _when_ ) they should pay the ransom was only, "We don't negotiate with gangsters, do we?"

"I do believe that Tenoh-san loved Kaioh-san more than anyone else, even more than Hotaru-chan and certainly more than her own life, which she didn't value very much. But if anyone had threatened to harm Kaioh-san, Tenoh-san would simply have grabbed her rapier and knocked some sense into them before they could even finish their sentence and that's it!"

"How did they free Kaioh?" Tenoh must have blindly trusted her own ability to free her girlfriend if she refused to pay the ransom despite having the money.

"They didn't free Kaioh-san—well, they were going to do it but they didn't have to. The same gangsters were holding Yaten-kun for ransom, and Kaioh-san and Yaten-kun escaped together although I don't know the details. That was the first time they met, and Kaioh-san gave Yaten-kun free concert tickets afterwards. After the concert, Kaioh-san introduced Tenoh-san to Seiya, which caused quite a scandal because the paparazzi claimed that Seiya had hooked up with Kaioh-san in her dressing room and was attacked by Tenoh-san afterwards although all Seiya did was helping Kaioh-san with the zipper of her dress… But I'm late and must go now!"

She is smiling at him with an air of finality, and the sheer thought of not seeing her again for a whole day, of enduring almost twenty-four hours without talking to her, makes Shinichi's stomach clench in knots. They haven't seen each other for years—and before he can tell her that he has impersonated her during her absence, they have to part again.

"Why don't you forget about the case and watch the musical with me instead?"

Ai has used her smoothest, sweetest voice for the suggestion, which convinces Shinichi once again that she is trying to prevent him from solving this case instead of supporting him. "Do forget about the mystery for once! I'm sure you will enjoy the hustle and bustle of the backstage area."

If it weren't for Seiya, Shinichi would have been tempted to accept the invitation and might have succumbed to her velvety siren's voice. But since she has chosen her side and shown that she won't support him, he has to choose his as well.

"No, thank you. You know me, Haibara—I will always choose the case! I'm going to meet up with Carrara now, and I don't want to let Hakuba wait at the Doge Palace until the musical ends. Hakuba and I are going to meet at seven p.m. at the fourth pillar of the Doge Palace if you count from the lagoon towards the Bacino di San Marco. Afterwards we'll probably go to the Gritti or spend the evening in Harry's Bar just to have an overpriced dinner and try out the Venetian _spritz_. As you can see, Hakuba is as hedonistic and obsessed with details as ever. You're invited to come if you have time to join us tonight. In any case, we two absolutely need to meet up tomorrow at the latest!"

"Do you know why Hakuba wanted to meet at the fourth pillar out of all pillars?"

"Because it's out of alignment with the other pillars?" Among the regular row of white marble pillars, the fourth pillar stands out like a glaring mistake in an otherwise perfect plan, an anomaly which naturally didn't escape Shinichi's attention when Ran and he were roaming the centre of the city. "Come to think of it, a 'perfect murder' is very much like the Doge Palace—the row of events seems flawless until you discover the fourth column!"

"The Torture of Hope." An enigmatic smile flickers across her fine-featured face before her eyes darken. "Isn't it a beautiful, wonderfully romantic name for a mistake?"

"You mean Torture _by_ Hope?" Shinichi corrects her. "Isn't it a nineteenth-century French short story about a prisoner during the time of the Inquisition, who was tricked into believing that he could escape in the night of his execution?"

"It was the only torture which could break his spirit—the realization that his hope was futile right from the start just when he believed he had finally reached his goal. Vain hope is the cruelest, most painful of illusions… The story is _The Torture by Hope_ , by Villiers de L'Isle-Adam."

"But what does it have to do with the fourth column?" Did she seriously mean that Shinichi won't ever solve this case even though he has solved all the cases he encountered in his life? "And why did you call it the Torture _of_ Hope?"

She has read somewhere that the fourth column was called the Torture by Hope, Ai claims, and she only made the mistake because her mind was beginning to wander. Of course she is lying to him this time—she doesn't even make an effort to hide it—but Shinichi can't think of a reason why she can't be truthful.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to follow your train of thought, Haibara!" The image of the love necklace he has unwittingly given her flashes through his mind, and it takes Shinichi some effort to push it aside to focus on the mystery.

"Miyano, not Haibara," she gently corrects him. The last sunlight is playing in her long lashes and her limpid turquoise-blue eyes; and for the first time in his life, Shinichi notices—really acknowledges and sees—that Ai's eyelashes are naturally black in contrast to her fair hair.

"Tomorrow at the Florian! Three p.m.!" Shinichi reminds her. She has become so noncommittal that he has begun to fear that she would simply forget about their date.

"We can meet up earlier if you have time," she suggests, much to his surprise. "Would you like to go out for lunch with us? You can bring whoever you want. Afterwards, when Seiya goes to La Fenice, we can have coffee at the Florian and go for a walk before the musical starts."

Ai doesn't only want to watch the opening night—she also plans to watch the musical on Sunday. And before Shinichi's inner eye, the image of her sitting on a chair or lying on the sofa in Seiya's dressing room before and after every single performance (and probably almost every single rehearsal as well), whiling away her rare hours of free time with a nap or a cup of tea while Seiya is working on his mask in silence, repeats itself in an infinite loop. If this is really the way she wants to spend her life, it's not Shinichi's task to "knock some sense" into her.

"Let's meet at the Florian after lunch," Shinichi decides since having lunch with her _and_ her singer is definitely not his notion of a date. "Please do come alone!"

"See you tomorrow then." She turns away from him with the same expression of bewilderment and sadness which she has been wearing in the last hours (the clueless look which infuriates Shinichi even more than her nonchalance and her obstinacy). Hence he takes a step towards her to grab her arm but reconsiders it after remembering her shocked expression when they were in Seiya's apartment.

"Miyano!" he calls out instead, whereupon she gives him a distracted smile.

"Yes?"

"Why did you give me the watercolour card?" Even though he has lost and she has won, he can see no victory in her eyes but only anticipation and something close to fear.

"I found it about two months ago, after someone broke into our apartment and nothing was stolen." Her enigmatic half-smile and her fear are momentarily replaced by an expression of wide-eyed innocence. "'Tenoh Akira' and 'Jean Black' are the names Seiya once used whenever he was incognito—during his bar-hopping phase when he played Young Moriarty in _Detective Boy Holmes_. Seiya hasn't used either of the two names, which he only chose to tease Tenoh-san, since then. But about a year ago, someone under that name suddenly appeared in Italy and France. 'Akira-sama', who seems to love the high life, has been dating pretty socialites and seducing them out of their easy money more or less successfully since then; and since it's an open secret in artistic circles that Seiya was 'Tenoh Akira', people who know about Seiya's teenage pranks believe Seiya is the crook. I thought the case could interest you if you have time, but maybe you're too immersed in the La Fenice case to look into it. It could be of interest to Hakuba-san as well since 'Tenoh Akira' has shot his falcon."

"I will find time to clear Seiya's name for him—if Seiya is innocent." As important as her information was, Shinichi can't get over the fact that Ai has been using his mystery obsession to save the reputation of her prankish womanizer. "How large are the sums 'Akira' took? Are there many angry exes?" Realizing that her fear might not be unfounded, he adds with some apprehension, "Is Seiya in great danger?"

"I think it's only peanuts, and Seiya doesn't need anyone's protection." Her smile broadens. Apparently, the fact that Shinichi would have protected her singer amuses Ai so much that she completely forgets about her anxiety. "It only irritates me that 'Akira' has been wrecking Seiya's reputation and that people don't even notice how sensible and focused Seiya has become." In reply to Shinichi's raised eyebrow, she sighs. He doesn't know Seiya at all, she asserts. "Just give him a chance and you'll notice that you two are very alike! But we'll have to continue this discussion tomorrow since I've been away much too long."

"See you tomorrow." Disheartened by her undisguised hurry to run back to her singer, Shinichi gives up at last. Watching her ascend the stairs of La Fenice with the deliberate, easy steps of a queen attending a fancy ball which has been held in her honour, he can't help but recall the girl who used to hide behind his or Mitsuhiko's back and wonder how much effort it must have cost Ai to become the person she is now.

"Milady de Winter…"

"Yes?" She has only turned her head to him this time while her feet are continuing their way upstairs to the entrance of _La Fenice_ , where the emblem of the phoenix is hanging over her head like a menacing crown of fire.

"I'm glad that we two will never marry!"

"Why?" She looks genuinely dismayed at his statement.

"Because I would be very tempted to hang you or behead you just like that count and musketeer did to his wife!"

She laughs—and the unfamiliar, soft, silvery sound seems to warm the cool Venetian evening and brighten the now overcast sky. The people in front of her turn around in curiosity. Somewhere, a woman is taking pictures. On the photo, Ai would only be a harmless strawberry-blonde stranger in a simple trench coat, who is laughing and raising her hand to say goodbye to her companion, who doesn't follow her into the opera house for some obscure reason.

"How lucky for both of us that we won't ever marry, right?" she casually remarks and, after flashing him a last smile, quickly enters the opera house, where he can see her rush through the throng of well-dressed people with the unwavering determination of a woman who is deeply, blindly in love with her boyfriend or fake boyfriend (it doesn't really matter whether they're a real couple or not since it wouldn't change anything about her infatuation with her singer) despite knowing that the one she loves must have lied to her and used her.

i.

On the vaporetto to the Piazza di San Marco, where Shinichi mentally goes through all the happenings since last night for another time, Shinichi scraps the theory of the culprit who has hurriedly cleaned the victim's dressing room in less than fifteen minutes. If the culprit was Seiya (and the culprit must have been Seiya because who else could it have been?), he could have cleaned the dressing room leisurely, methodically. The many slow clocks and watches, which resulted in a chaos of unreliable witness accounts, were the magician's distraction to draw the audience's attention away from the few details which mattered. The truth is so obvious that Shinichi wonders why he couldn't see it before. There was only one person in the whole opera house who had all the time in the world to clean the dressing room if one watch was slow: Luigi Gentile's vintage pocket watch, which Shinichi only noticed this afternoon when he protected Ai from the reporters and which Seiya must have put forward by now.

That's exactly the reason why Seiya had to ask Gentile where Ai was although Seiya must have known that she was waiting for him in his dressing room. If you have to hide a needle, just hide it in a haystack or, even better, in a pile of other needles! Damn manipulative, smart, talented, ruthless culprit, who didn't let anything distract him from his plan! Not even Ai's unexpected migraine attack and Nadia Gorowitz's presence in the opera house (the part-time usher had a day off but visited her ex-boyfriend just to stalk Seiya, as Shinichi learned this afternoon when he asked Ai who their stalker was before he excused himself to use the bathroom) could derail the premeditated murder.

On the other hand, Seiya has shown himself to be kind and considerate despite committing the reckless murder when he put the watches back and forward in a way which resulted in an alibi for all the people in the backstage area and not only for himself. Interestingly, the singer has even presented himself as the prime suspect so that no one else's career would be destroyed by nasty rumours. _The musical world will exist with or without me_. _Rumours won't be able to destroy my career as they would destroy Mamoru's or Rei's_. How perfectly amiable!

There was only one watch which Seiya Kou couldn't touch: Aino Minako's watch or clock—since Aino Minako wasn't in the opera house last night. Aino could become a key witness and assist Shinichi's investigation if she didn't have a crush on Seiya as well, as Shinichi could see before Ai and he left the campo.

In any case, all witnesses like Seiya enough to lie for him whereas Shinichi doesn't have any proof for his theory. Now that Shinichi has promised Ai to look into the "Tenoh Akira" case, Shinichi also has to haul Seiya out of the mess the inveterate playboy must have got himself into because, being the unprincipled jerk he is, Seiya couldn't keep his hands off other pretty women despite having the one he loves (or one of the few women he loves?) in his apartment.

What could the motive for the murder be, Shinichi once again asks himself as he wanders about the picturesque Piazza di San Marco, which is still teeming with tourists and doves in November. Seiya, carefree and spoilt by luck, obviously loves his life—and he has her. Even if Seiya and Ai weren't an item, Seiya must be blind not to recognize her feelings for him. Moreover, the singer doesn't look dumb enough to ruin his life by murdering Tenoh Haruka just because she tried to drive a wedge between them.

"Hollywood is going to turn the _Detective Boy Holmes_ remake into a blockbuster, so I've heard. It's too bad that Seiya-sama has rejected the offer to reprise his role."

"Has he? But I thought they've even offered him the main role this time."

"I still hope he will change his mind since he would be a terrific Sherlock Holmes…"

A group of Japanese tourists are chatting about a Hollywood remake of the _Detective Boy Holmes_ series in front of the Florian, where Shinichi is whiling away the time until his meeting with Carrara. And Shinichi, whose attention has been captured by the name of his number-one suspect, lingers in front of the Florian's outdoor band, which is presently playing "Music of the Night".

"But who would play Moriarty if Seiya-sama didn't? Seiya-sama was the perfect Moriarty—no one else could be so charismatic and dangerous at the same time."

"Taiki-sama said he would play Moriarty if Seiya-sama played Sherlock Holmes. Since Taiki-sama was such a great Sherlock Holmes, we can hope that he will be a great Moriarty as well."

"Ah, but Taiki-sama would be a completely different Moriarty, wouldn't he? Taiki-sama would be a passionless, cold-blooded, vengeful Professor Moriarty—not a dangerously charming gentleman crook who happens to kill his enemies without remorse because he has to lead a criminal organization."

"Passionless, cold-blooded, vengeful… Wouldn't that be _the ultimate_ Professor Moriarty? Besides, weren't there two Moriarty's in canon? I've heard there was a plot hole in Sir Conan Doyle's stories which make that idea feasible."

James Moriarty, one of the most fascinating villains in literature, was only a deux ex machina to end Sherlock Holmes' life—just as Godfrey Norton must have been a deux ex machina to prevent Holmes from being with his ideal woman. Ironically, the side characters which Conan Doyle failed to flesh out caught the readers' fancy because they were so sketchy and mysterious; and the many plot holes in the Moriarty-Holmes showdown only added to Moriarty's appeal.

"I don't know much about the canon Moriarty. What I liked most about _Detective Boy Holmes_ was how they kept the canon version of Irene Adler and her husband intact. I mean, what's the point of giving Irene Adler a boring or abusive husband so that she can kiss Sherlock Holmes without a guilty conscience? Doyle gave us the perfect obstacle to the Adlock pairing when he created Irene's beautiful, dashing, enthusiastic Godfrey Norton, who did justice to Irene's intelligence and good taste."

"But that would be too great an obstacle for Sherlock Holmes in a movie, wouldn't it? Why should Irene go for the great consulting detective when she already has a great and much more handsome husband who loves her so much that he would throw away his career and leave England with her? Sherlock Holmes admired Irene Adler or was even in love with her, but, if you only consider the hard facts, Irene Adler never reciprocated. Everything Irene did—keeping the photo of herself and the king, hiding her marriage, tricking Holmes—she only did to protect herself and her Mr Norton…"

"The director of _Detective Boy Holmes_ solved that problem by turning Godfrey Norton into Young Moriarty so that the fans can write fanfics about Irene discovering the horrible truth that her handsome husband was a criminal mastermind."

"But they were only played by the same actor. They weren't the same person in the series, were they?"

"Come to think of it, if Seiya-sama played Sherlock Holmes, who would be good-looking enough to play Godfrey Norton?"

"Rumour has it that Yaten-sama has agreed to play Godfrey Norton this time if Seiya-sama plays Sherlock Holmes. It's possible since Watson and Godfrey Norton don't have any screen time together…"

Why should Shinichi care about a series which has changed everything he likes about the canon and kept the one pairing he can't stand? As expected, there is no reason why Shinichi should ever watch _Detective Boy Holmes_ , and he doesn't believe that he will miss out on anything.

i.

In the gathering twilight, the lagoon is shimmering in countless shades of lavender and turquoise and blue, just like her eyes, in which Shinichi could have drowned although he doesn't know her at all. Even though he can no longer deny that he wants Ai in that irrational, idiotic way in which teenagers long for the beautiful crush they have only admired from afar, it can't be love since they practically met for the first time last night. Ai is so different from the image Shinichi once had of her in his mind that she might as well be a stranger.

_What are you going to do after taking the cure?_

_Bringing down the Organization, securing Pandora's Box, proposing to Ran. I've actually told Ran about my feelings long ago, so you can say we're having a long-distance relationship now, well, sort of… I'd have told you about it much earlier if talking about it hadn't been so awkward._

_Well then_ , _I'll give you the permanent antidote right now if you can delay all those things for a few hours and stay here with me while I'm watching_ Charade _..._

Oddly enough, the musicians in front of the Florian have begun to play "Charade"—and the mournful, eerie tune is streaming through the Piazza di San Marco and the adjacent streets like a requiem or a ghostly funeral dance on the grave of a love that died years ago. Behind Shinichi, the fourth column of the Doge Palace looms like a marble giant. Vain hope is the cruelest, most painful of illusions, she said. The death of hope was the only torture which could break the prisoner's spirit before the execution.

Thoughts and emotions alone are often too little but too strong, which must be the reason why gestures and actions usually follow afterwards. In Shinichi's hand, the platinum screwdriver resembles a murder weapon and, at the same time, a nasty little needle which will continually be poking at his leg if he doesn't do anything about it. Shinichi takes three steps towards the lagoon, hesitating for a moment before he finally gives in to the strange, unexplainable impulse—and the little screwdriver catches the last light of the red sun on the horizon as it shoots into the air towards the lagoon and, after flying a high arch and sparkling in the sunlight for the very last time, disappears in the rippling water.

i.

* * *

 

_End of Part Four_

i.

_I've been ostracized and exiled,_

_Chased out of my native country._

_Now I'm fed up with the game of hide and seek,_

_I will not be checkmated._

_I have suffered long enough,_

_It is the turn of the Queen._

_Like the phoenix I am reborn,_

_And I'm soaring high._

_The old paths I'm walking anew,_

_Prouder than before._

_In the air a scent of lilacs_

_envelops me, sweet and rich._

_Never will anyone knock me down again,_

_No, never, never, never, never, never…_

_(_ "Milady is back", from _3 Musketeers_ by Bolland &Bolland)

i.

* * *

 

A/N: This is my last update for the next months since I'm writing my thesis and studying for my final exams now. I'll be back afterwards and update "Ghost at Twilight" first since I haven't updated that fic for so long although it's already ending.

This chapter and all the previous chapters with an "i" belong into one long chapter. I've split them since I dislike posting long chapters and it's impossible to edit such long chapters on Safari, but I'm going to merge them in the end.


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